Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, will address graduates of Johns Hopkins University at commencement on May 22, 2014.
Image caption: Susan Wojcicki
Named one of Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business," one of Forbes' "100 Most Powerful Women," and one of Vanity Fair's 50 "leading innovators [that] shake the foundations of their industries," Wojcicki became head of the video-sharing powerhouse earlier this year.
"Susan Wojcicki has helped to revolutionize how we gather, interpret, and share information," said university president Ronald J. Daniels. "I cannot imagine a better speaker for a class of graduates who were not only raised in an entirely digital age—and who may have learned to Google at the same time they learned to read—but who are imbued with the type of restless, entrepreneurial energy that has always marked our speaker's career."
Wojcicki had served as senior vice president of advertising and commerce at Google, a company founded in her family's Menlo Park, Calif., garage. She led teams that helped define the vision and direction of Google's monetization platforms, helping the company become a $43.7 billion business responsible for more than 40 percent of total digital ad revenue in the United States.
At Google, she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics.
She joined Google in 1999 as the company's first marketing manager and led the initial development of several key consumer products, including Google Images and Google Books. Before Google, Wojcicki worked at Intel, Bain & Company, and a number of start-ups.
An early champion of online video, Wojcicki now oversees YouTube's content, business operations, engineering, and product development. YouTube is the world's most popular digital video platform, used by a billion people across the globe.
"Hopkins' graduates are heading into an age of unprecedented innovation and I'm thrilled to address them at such a crucial point in their lives," Wojcicki said. "With one of the best Harlem Shake videos around, it's clear they have the creativity, passion, and entrepreneurial spirit to lead in a rapidly changing world."
Wojcicki graduated from Harvard University with honors in 1990. She received a Master's in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master's in Business Administration from UCLA.
The Johns Hopkins universitywide commencement ceremony will be held May 22 at Homewood Field. For more information, visit http://web.jhu.edu/commencement, or get updates from the commencement Facebook page or on Twitter at @JHUCommencement
Past commencement speakers
- 2013—Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and neurosurgeon
- 2012—Sam Palmisano, chairman of the board at IBM
- 2011—Fareed Zakaria, CNN political commentator
- 2010—Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York
- 2009—Nancy Pelosi, speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
- 2008—Bill Nye, the Science Guy
- 2007—Brian Billick, Baltimore Ravens head coach
- 2006—Elias Zerhouni, director, National Institutes of Health
- 2005—Al Gore, former U.S. vice president
- 2004—Bill Cosby, actor and comedian
- 2003—Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York
- 2002—Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News anchor
- 2001—Al Hunt, Wall Street Journal executive Washington editor
- 2000—George Tenet, CIA director
- 1999—John McCain, U.S. senator, R-Ariz.
- 1998—Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross
- 1997—Timothy Johnson, medical editor, ABC News
- 1996—George H.W. Bush, former U.S. president; and Sadako Ogata, U.N. high commissioner for refugees
- 1995—Ted Koppel, ABC News Nightline anchor; and Barbara Mikulski, U.S. senator, D-Md.
- 1994—Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital; and Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
- 1993—Barry Levinson, filmmaker; and Richard von Weizsäcker, president, Federal Republic of Germany
- 1992—Lee Iaccocca, chairman of Chrysler Corp.; and Brian Mulrooney, prime minister, Canada
- 1991—Tom Clancy, novelist; and Thomas Odhiambo, founder and director, Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology
- 1990—Garry Trudeau, cartoonist; and Sol Linowitz, U.S. diplomat
- 1989—Kenneth M. Duberstein, former White House chief of staff during Reagan administration; and Javier Perez de Cuellar, secretary general of the U.N.
- 1988—Mario Cuomo, governor of New York; and J. William Fulbright, former chairman, U.S. Senate foreign relations committee
- 1987—Howard Cosell, sportscaster; and M. Vartan Gregorian, president of the New York Public Library
- 1986—Roger Revelle, professor at University of California, San Diego; and Eric R. Kandel, professor at Columbia University
- 1985—John Houseman, actor; and James W. Rouse, developer
- 1984—William F. Buckley Jr., journalist and author; and Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board
- 1983—Bill Bradley, U.S. senator, D-N.J.; and Harry Woolf, director of the Institute for Advanced Study
- 1982—William Donald Schaefer, mayor of Baltimore; and Ralf G. Dahrendorf, director of the London School of Economics
- 1981—Franklin D. Murphy, chairman of the Times-Mirror Co.
- 1980—Roger Stevens, chairman of the board, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor
- 1979—Dick Cavett, talk show host; and Rosalyn S. Yalow, biomedical researcher and Nobel Prize winner
- 1978—Hyman Rickover, retired U.S. Navy admiral; and **John R. Evans, president of the University of Toronto
- 1977—Isaac Asimov, author; and William D. McElroy, chancellor of the University of California, San Diego
- 1976—Tom Wicker, New York Times columnist; and Lewis Thomas, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute
- 1975—William Scranton, former governor of Pennsylvania
- 1974—Rafael Hernandez Colon, governor of Puerto Rico
Posted in University News
Tagged commencement 2014
