When it comes to listing one of the most accomplished female CEOs in the world today, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki’s name tops the list. Susan has been with YouTube since 2014, and currently, she is overseeing YouTube’s content and business operations and responsible for engineering and product development of the video-streaming giant. Under her stewardship, the company rose to become the largest video streaming platform. Her incredible journey to becoming a global business icon is impressive as it is inspiring. Many women and budding entrepreneurs aiming to achieve great things in any field can take a leaf from Susan’s amazing success story.
In the infographic below, you will get an overview of Susan Wojcicki’s inspiring journey to becoming the CEO of YouTube – the largest online video streaming platform.
Infographic Content:
Born in an erudite family
- Born on July 5, 1968, to a Polish-American father and Jewish mother in Santa Clara County, California, US.
- Her father has taught physics at Stanford University and her mother is a journalist and an educator.
- Her one sister, Janet Wojcicki, is an epidemiologist and anthropologist and the other sister, Anne Wojcicki, is the CEO of a California-based DNA testing technology company.
Student Life
- Studied at Gunn High School, California. A brilliant writer, Susan used to write for the school’s newspaper.
- In 1990, she graduated from the Harvard University with a major in literature and history.
- In 1993, she attended the University of California in Santa Cruz and obtained her master’s degree in economics.
- In 1998, Susan earned a master’s in Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Important Career Milestones
- She began her career by working in R.B. Webber & Company and Bain & Company as a management consultant.
- Worked at Intel’s headquarters in the marketing division.
- In 1999, Susan became the first marketing manager of Google, where she held the Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce position.
- Wojcicki was promoted from VP to senior VP at Google in October 2010.
- She headed the advertising and analytic products of Google, such as ‘AdWords,’ ‘Google Analytics’ and ‘AdSense.’
Reaching the helm of YouTube
- Wojcicki initiated the proposal of acquiring YouTube, which was developed by Chad Hurley and competing against Google’s video service at that time.
- Wojcicki handled the acquisition of YouTube in 2006.
- Became the CEO of YouTube in February 2014.
- Supervised the release of YouTube TV and YouTube Red – a paid streaming subscription service of YouTube.
Interesting facts about Susan Wojcicki
- Susan has been called – The Most Important Googler You’ve Never Heard of.
- She is deemed as The Most Important Person in Advertising because she was instrumental in creating AdSense.
- She laughingly calls herself the “mom of Google.”
- Susan has been with Google since it was founded. She was their 16th employee.
Did you know?
Susan rented her garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 when they were creating Google.
“Google is fascinating, and the book isn’t finished yet. I’m living, creating, building, and writing those chapters.” – Susan.
YouTube’s golden days under Susan’s leadership
- Under Susan’s leadership, the platform grew in value to $90 billion.
- The platform currently has 200 million daily users of gaming content.
- Oversaw the development and release of several YouTube applications for users interested in gaming, music, and family content.
- She created several forms of monetization for YouTube creators, like – channel memberships, super chat, and merchandise.
Awards and Recognitions
- In 2013, Susan stood at the number one position on the Adweek Top 50 Execs list.
- In 2015, she was on the time’s list of 100 most influential people. In the same magazine, she was regarded as ‘the most powerful woman on the internet.’
- In 2017, she held the sixth position on the Forbes list of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
- In 2018, Wojcicki was the tenth on Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women.
- In 2019, she was named number one on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list.
- Wojcicki currently ranks #41 on the Forbes list of America’s Self-Made Women.
Sources:
Britannica.com, Forbes.com, BBC.com, Medium.com, Businessinsider.com, YouTube.com