Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg is stepping down from her position as CEO of Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Sandberg spent fourteen years with the social media company as the number two under director Mark Zuckerberg. She announced her departure on Tuesday evening via a Facebook message.
Sandberg (52) came over from Google to Facebook in 2008 – which has been called Meta Platforms since last year. As operational director, she led the advertising branch of Facebook, among other things. Four years after she took office, the social media company went public and, partly under her leadership, it became a multi-billion dollar company. Sandberg often spoke out publicly on issues such as women in the workplace, and recently she also advocated abortion. In 2013 she wrote the book Lean in – women, work and the road to success†
Sandberg will step down in the fall. “When I took this job in 2008, I hoped that I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it’s time for me to write the next chapter of my life,” she writes. Sandberg says she is “not quite sure” what she will do in the future. “But I know I will focus more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given the pivotal moment for women.” She also says that she will focus on her family.
Director Zuckerberg responded in a private Facebook post that Javier Olivan will serve as Meta’s new director of operations, although he will not replace Sandberg in the organizational structure “because she is a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way.” Olivan has been with Facebook since 2007.