Key Facebook force Sheryl Sandberg stepping down
- Meta’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is leaving the company after 14 years
- She’ll be replaced by chief growth officer Javier Olivan, a 15-year veteran at Facebook
Meta’s second most powerful executive Sheryl Sandberg made the shock announcement on Wednesday she will leave after a 14-year tenure that included helping steer scandal-prone Facebook to advertising dominance.
Sandberg, 52, has been one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley and her departure comes as the social media juggernaut faces an uncertain future and fierce competition.
Her exit from Facebook parent Meta will be effective in the fall, she wrote on the platform, adding she planned to remain on the firm’s board.
A Harvard-educated executive, Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 when it was still just a start-up, playing a formative role in its development into a multibillion-dollar advertising empire.
“Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life,” Sandberg said. “I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is.”
Her job made her not just a recognisable face in tech but also a household name, particularly thanks to her 2013 book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.