Meta’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg plans to step down from her position on the company’s board of directors after her term ends in May, she said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
‘Meta business is strong and well-positioned for the future, so this feels like the right time to step away,’ Sandberg, 54, said in the post, adding that she will serve as an adviser to the company.
Responding to Sandberg, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he looks forward to ‘a new chapter together.’
Sandberg’s decision came in after she spent more than 14 years as the company’s chief operating officer, in addition to 12 years on its board. During her time as COO, the company acquired powerhouses such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
In 2022, Sandberg married CEO Tom Bernthal, her third marriage. The Harvard graduate was previously married to a man named Brian Kraff for a year between 1994 and 1995.
In 2004, she married Yahoo executive Dave Goldberg, the couple had two children together a son and daughter. Goldberg died tragically in 2015 at the age of just 47 while vacationing in Mexico due to an undiagnosed heart condition.
Meta ‘s former COO Sheryl Sandberg plans to step down from her position on the company’s board of directors after her term ends in May
In announcing her departure, Sandberg posted this undated photo showing her with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Sandberg pictured with her husband Tom Bernthal at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho in July 2023
Once second-in-command to founder Zuckerberg, Sandberg was one of the most visible executives at the company and the lead architect of its often-criticized ads-based business model.
Sandberg was often on the defensive, publicly backing the company following scandals including the spread of misinformation around the 2016 presidential election, Cambridge Analytica and its role in the Capitol riot in January 2021.
Sandberg stepped down from her position as Meta’s operations chief in 2022.
In her Facebook post announcing the departure, Sandberg said that she had a ‘heart filled with gratitude and a mind filled with memories.’
Sandberg graduated from Harvard in 1991 and from there went to work at the World Bank and then at global consulting firm McKinsey & Co, in meantime attaining an MBA from Harvard in 1995.
Prior to joining Facebook, Sandberg was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google between 2001 and 2008.
At the time that she met Zuckerberg in 2007, the Facebook founder said that he wasn’t actively looking for a COO but that he regarded Sandberg as a ‘perfect fit.’
A Harvard University graduate, Sandberg is the author of several books, including the 2013 feminist manifesto Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.
In an August 2023 interview with CNBC, Sandberg said that he one piece of advice she would give to her 20-year-old self would be: ‘Don’t be afraid to speak up at work.’
‘I have had so many moments in my career where I was so upset about something or so worried about something, and part of it was about learning to speak up earlier,’ she told the network.
Zuckerberg responded to Sandberg’s post with a short reply, thanking her for her work.
‘Thank you Sheryl for the extraordinary contributions you have made to our company and community over the years. Your dedication and guidance have been instrumental in driving our success and I am grateful for your unwavering commitment to me and Meta over the years,’ he said.
While technology chief Adam Bosworth wrote: ‘Amazing run Sheryl, thank you so much for everything you did for all of us and also for me personally.’
Her departure comes as Facebook struggles to maintain a market share thanks to the growth of more youth orientated social media apps, notably TikTok.
The company also faces challenges thanks for Apple’s new privacy laws which could severely impact Meta’s ad-based business model.
At Meta’s peak under her tenure as COO, the company’s market cap was $1 trillion.
Sandberg was replaced by Javier Olivan as COO in 2022, previously he had been the company’s chief growth officer.
Sandberg was often on the defensive, publicly backing the company following scandals including the spread of misinformation around the 2016 presidential election
Sandberg pictured with her late former husband David Goldberg at the Sun Valley conference in 2013
In their report on Sandberg’s departure, the Financial Times noted that the executive has ‘stirred speculation about a possible entry into politics.’
Sandberg is long-term Democrat, was former United States Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers chief of staff during his time working in the Clinton administration.
The Washington DC native was also an active supporter of Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign as well as contributing millions to pro-abortion causes nationwide in the wake of the repeal of Roe v Wade in 2022.
Despite never publicly endorsing President Joe Biden in 2020, Sandberg said that she would likely vote for a Democrat over Donald Trump.
In the wake of Hamas’ brutal assault on Israel on October 7 and the taking of Jewish hostages, Sandberg has been outspoken in calling for the captives return as well as highlighting the sexual violence perpetrated by terrorists during the attack.
At a United Nations conference on the violence in December, Sandberg told an audience: ‘Silence is complicity… rape should never be used as an act of war.’
Sandberg’s husband is also a veteran of Bill Clinton’s administration where he served in the communication office before moving to NBC News where he had a successful career as a producer.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Sandberg’s 2022 wedding was eventful with Zuckerberg becoming enraged when someone brought up his widely mocked Metaverse avatar.
The same year, it emerged that Meta spent $6.6 million on private planes for Zuckerberg and Sandberg, up 55 percent from 2019, reports the Wall Street Journal.