As of February 16, 2023, Susan Wojcicki is no longer the CEO of the massive video-sharing platform YouTube. Across her 9-year CEO career, several controversial changes that have affected the landscape of the platform were implemented. The most notable ones were probably the removal of the dislike button and YouTube Rewind.
Susan Wojcicki has not stated the specific reasons for her leave. However, a note she sent to YouTube’s employees states that she wants to focus on her family, health, and more personal projects. Here’s a Tweet from Susan herself regarding the situation:
Today, after nearly 25 years at @Google, I’m stepping back to start a new chapter. I'm inspired every day by creators around the world who bring people together on @YouTube. It's been an honor to have a front row seat to this incredible community. https://t.co/063sYalPzX
— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) February 16, 2023
What are Susan Wojcicki’s plans for the future?
Susan Wojcicki might no longer be the CEO, but she isn’t leaving YouTube entirely. At least not yet. She will stay with YouTube for a little while longer and help the company during this transition period. During this, she will coach her YouTube team members and meet with content creators on the platform. After this, she plans to continue her 25-year career with Google and take on an advisory role with Google and Alphabet.
Who is stepping up as YouTube’s new CEO?
Neal Mohan will be replacing Susan Wojcicki as CEO. Neal has aided Susan for the past 7 years as the chief product officer of YouTube, and the past 15 years as a fellow Google employee.
With so many years of experience working together, Susan has expressed her confidence in Neal Mohan’s leadership in the note she sent to YouTube. However, people have expressed concern for the platform, especially since this change of leadership came at an awkward time.
YouTube, and Google in general, is currently fighting a battle in court with the Gonzalez v. Google case. Whether or not Neal Mohan can do a better job of combating this and maintaining YouTube than Susan Wojcicki, remains to be seen.
Photo credit: The feature image has been taken by Jolanda Flubacher at the World Economic Forum. The photo shown in the body of the article has been taken by Stuart Isett for Fortune.
Source: YouTube Blog
