Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, is stepping down after 14 years of co-leading the firm with Mark Zuckerberg. Sheryl shared her decision with Mark Zuckerberg over the weekend.
It was “time to write the next chapter of my life,” she stated in a 1,542-word Facebook statement.
Sandberg joined Facebook in early 2008 as Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s No. 2 and helped turn the company into an advertising behemoth and one of the most powerful corporations in the internet sector, with a market cap that once reached $1 trillion.
Javier Olivan, the company’s Chief Growth Officer, will take over as COO, Mark Zuckerberg shared. Sandberg will remain on Meta’s board of directors.
Sandberg was already well-known in the IT world when she joined Facebook, having previously served as Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations. Prior to joining Google, she worked at the World Bank and the Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton. She was often regarded to as the adult supervision for a firm led by a very young entrepreneur during her early years at Facebook.
“When Sheryl joined me in 2008, I was only 23 years old and I barely knew anything about running a company,” Zuckerberg said in his post. “We’d built a great product — the Facebook website — but we didn’t yet have a profitable business and we were struggling to transition from a small startup to a real organization.”
End of an era
In a comment on Sheryl’s post, Mark Zuckerberg said;
“The end of an era. In the 14 years we’ve worked together, you’ve architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company. I’m going to miss working alongside you every day, but grateful to have you as a lifelong friend. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and my family, for our company, and for millions of people around the world. You’re a superstar.”