Meta director and former Chief Working Officer Sheryl Sandberg mentioned she’s going to step down from the board this 12 months, exiting her final official function on the social media firm she helped develop from a promising web startup right into a digital-advertising stalwart.
“With a heart filled with gratitude and a mind filled with memories, I let the Meta board know that I will not stand for reelection this May,” Sandberg wrote Wednesday in a post on Meta’s flagship Facebook community. “Going forward, I will serve as an adviser to the company, and I will always be there to help the Meta teams.”
Sandberg, 54, joined Fb in 2008 as No. 2 to co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to supervise the fledgling firm’s promoting, partnerships, enterprise growth and operations, following stints at Google, McKinsey & Co. and the US Division of the Treasury. She left her job as COO of the corporate, by then rebranded as Meta, in 2022.
Throughout her time on the tech large, which additionally owns Instagram and WhatsApp, Sandberg was key to turning the social community right into a money-making machine and one of many world’s greatest corporations. In 2022 Meta introduced in virtually $117 billion in income, most of it from focused promoting.
She typically served as the general public face of the enterprise, significantly amongst policymakers and regulators. As criticism of Fb and its platforms mounted in newer years, together with bruising scandals over lapses in privateness and content material moderation, Sandberg more and more retreated from the highlight.
“Your dedication and guidance have been instrumental in driving our success,” Zuckerberg wrote in a touch upon Sandberg’s Fb submit. “I am grateful for your unwavering commitment to me and Meta over the years.”
It’s unclear if Meta plans to interchange Sandberg on the board, which now has eight different members, together with Zuckerberg as chairman. An organization spokesperson mentioned Meta persistently evaluates learn how to develop the board, however declined to supply additional particulars.
Since leaving the COO function at Meta, Sandberg has spent extra time on philanthropic efforts. Her nonprofit group, LeanIn.Org, launched a program for women 11 to fifteen known as Lean In Women, aiming to show classes about resilience, optimistic risk-taking and management. She was additionally a part of a crew of buyers that brought a women’s professional soccer club to the San Francisco Bay Space final 12 months; the crew will play its inaugural season in 2024.
Most not too long ago, Sandberg organized an event at the United Nations centered on sexual violence that occurred through the Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel.
