YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has announced she will be stepping down from the top role.

Wojcicki will be succeeded by current YouTube head of product Neal Mohan.

Wojcicki joined Google in 1999, as its 16th employee, and has served as CEO of YouTube since 2014. She was instrumental in the company’s A$2.4 billion purchase of the video streaming site, a purchase seen as overvalued at the time.

She is leaving the company to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” she told staff in an email this morning.

“The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube,” Wojcicki wrote.

“When I joined YouTube nine years ago, one of my first priorities was bringing in an incredible leadership team. Neal Mohan was one of those leaders, and he’ll be the SVP and new head of YouTube.

“He has a wonderful sense for our product, our business, our creator and user communities, and our employees. Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube.”