Sheryl Sandberg steps down as Meta COO

Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is leaving after 14 years, she announced on Wednesday.

Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 and has served as the No. 2 to founder Mark Zuckerberg since the company’s youth. She played a pivotal role in Facebook’s rise as a profitable social media giant, helping to expand the company’s reach internationally. Since Sandberg joined the operation, Facebook grew from 500 to 77,800 employees and from 100 million to 3 billion active users by the end of last year. The company’s revenue jumped from $153 million in 2007 to $117.9 billion in 2021, the company said.

In a lengthy post on Facebook, Sandberg said she would leave her role this fall but would continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors. After she informed Zuckerberg of her decision this weekend, the company said, the two began working on a transition plan. Javier Olivan, the vice president of central products, will be Meta’s next COO, “assuming a more traditional role focused internally and operationally on integrated ads and business products.”

Sandberg thanked Zuckerberg, whom she called a “true visionary and a caring leader,” for bringing her on to the company more than a decade ago. In the post, she praised the talent and dedication of her co-workers, whose achievements she said she was “immensely proud of.”

But she also addressed social media’s growing influence across the globe, and the challenges and responsibility that come with that growth. With Sandberg’s high-profile role alongside Zuckerberg, she was a familiar face as the company faced a deluge of scandals, from data privacy issues to its failure to stop the spread of misinformation and harmful posts.

“The debate around social media has changed beyond recognition since those early days,” she said in the post. “To say it hasn’t always been easy is an understatement. 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. I know that the extraordinary team at Meta will continue to work tirelessly to rise to these challenges and keep making our company and our community better. I also know that our platforms will continue to be an engine of growth for the businesses around the world that rely on us.”

Sandberg is the founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, a nonprofit that partners with initiatives like LeanIn.Org, which helps women achieve ambitions and companies build inclusive workplaces. Facebook said Sandberg would focus on her family and philanthropic work in the near future.

In his own post, Zuckerberg said it was the “end of an era.” When Sandberg joined the company, he was 23 and said he “barely knew anything about running a company.”

“It’s unusual for a business partnership like ours to last so long,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I think ours did because Sheryl is such an amazing person, leader, partner, and friend. She cares deeply about the people in her life and she is generous about nurturing relationships and helping you grow as a person. She has taught me so much and she has been there for many of the important moments in my life, both personally and professionally. Whether going through the different transitions we’ve made as a company over the years, or when she supported me and Priscilla as we navigated challenges having children, our partnership has always been deeper than just business.”