One of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley, Susan Wojiski, died last week from lung cancer.

What was your first thought when you heard the news of

her passing? You know I guess my first thought was she was way too young. I mean she was

only 56.

That's our colleague Miles Krupa.

He covers Google, the company that Wojiske helped transform

from a startup in her garage to the tech giant it is today.

In a big company like Google, sometimes it's really about the person who champions an idea

to make it really come to fruition.

And it's impossible as with most things to sort of distill it to one person's efforts, but it's really hard to envision the internet in 2024 without her contributions.

I mean, her fingerprints are all over it.

Wajiski was one of Google's earliest employees.

She never sought the spotlight, but she helped lead the company

through periods of tremendous growth.

While she was at the company, she was in charge of two initiatives

that changed the way we monetize the internet.

Online Advertising and YouTube.

I think she was one of the most important, if not the most important people in shaping how we all make money on the internet.

You know, the fact that websites run ads placed by Google on them.

That all goes back to her.

And she was sort of there every step of the way,

setting the guidelines, setting the rules, creating the tools to get people paid.

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