Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to Step Down After 14 Years

Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg announced today in a Facebook post that she was stepping down from the company after 14 years. She will leave in the fall but will continue to serve on the company’s board of directors. Javier Olivan, the company’s chief growth officer, will take over as COO. However, founder Mark Zuckerberg noted that it will be a markedly different role than what Sandberg did. She will also work with Zuckerberg to transition her direct reports before her departure. “When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years,” she wrote. “Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter.” Sandberg, often considered the No. 2 to Zuckerberg, joined Meta after building Google's advertising business. Before that, she served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration. “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,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, shaped social platforms' online ad strategies under Sandberg’s leadership. But in the last few years as Facebook encountered regulatory dilemmas and public criticism for incidents, including the Cambridge Analytica privacy probe and accusations of election interference, Sandberg saw her celebrated persona greatly diminished. Despite that, it still commands the largest share of digital ad revenue (aside from Google). "The debate around social media has changed beyond recognition since those early days. To say it hasn’t always been easy is an understatement," Sandberg wrote. "But it should be hard. The products we make have a huge impact, so we have the responsibility to build them in a way that protects privacy and keeps people safe." When she joined Facebook, she had a 2-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter and wasn’t sure if it was the right time for a demanding role, she added. But with the support of Zuckerberg, she found her voice at the company and used it to showcase her philosophies around gender and the workplace. “[Sandberg] created opportunities for millions of partners and billions of people around the world, all while building a business that generates over $100 billion in revenue,” Marne Levine, chief business officer at Meta, said in a comment on Sandberg's post. Sandberg did not specify her next career move, but noted she would focus on her philanthropic work and foundation, the Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation. "In 2022, Meta is facing a slowdown in user growth and ad revenue that is now testing the business foundation that the company was built on," said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst, insider intelligence at eMarketer. "The company needs to find a new way forward, and perhaps this was the best time for Sandberg to depart."

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Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to Step Down After 14 Years

She will leave the company in the fall and plans to focus on philanthropic endeavors

Trishla Ostwal

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Trishla Ostwal