How Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s billionaire COO who just got engaged, became one of the most influential women in tech

With a reported net worth of US$1.7 billion, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is one of the wealthiest women in the world.

In nearly 10 years at Facebook, Sandberg has grown to be one of the most recognisable faces in Silicon Valley. She's been with the company since it was a small start-up, and has navigated it through both the 2016 presidential election and Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Meanwhile, she's had a stunningly eventful life of her own, finding the time to write two popular memoirs and deal with the sudden death of her husband in 2015. This year, she got engaged to the founder and CEO of a Los Angeles-based consulting firm. 

Here's everything you need to know about one of the most influential women in tech.

Growing up

Sheryl Sandberg was born August 28, 1969, in Washington, DC. She has two younger siblings: a brother named David and a sister named Michelle. The family moved to North Miami Beach when Sheryl was two years old.

Sandberg's father was an ophthalmologist and her mother taught French at a local college. The couple founded the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry through their local synagogue, and their home soon became a safe haven for Soviet Jews looking to escape anti-Semitism.

Sandberg always shone in school, and was in the National Honor Society. “In public schools, for a girl to be smart was not good for your social life,” her mother Adele told The New Yorker. She also taught aerobics while in high school.

She went on to attend Harvard University, where both of her siblings also studied. She majored in economics, and started an organisation at college called Women in Economics and Government. She graduated with her undergraduate degree in 1991.