The early death of Silicon Valley veteran and former YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki this weekend has prompted an outpouring of condolences from Big Tech heavyweights for an advertising visionary who was also known for being a vocal champion of women in business. 

Wojcicki, who has died aged 56 after a two-year battle with lung cancer, was instrumental in growing Google’s mammoth advertising business. By the time she had moved from overseeing it in 2014 to running the video streaming platform YouTube it had ballooned to more than $50bn in revenues.

Google’s 16th employee, Wojcicki was a pivotal figure at what has become one of the world’s most influential companies. She helped steer the evolution of how people — from individual creators to big advertisers — make and spend money online.