Sheryl Sandberg has officially stepped down as Meta's COO. Here's how she got her start in tech and became No. 2 at one of the world's most influential companies.

Sheryl Sandberg, Meta COO, waves while standing on a stage with a red backdrop
Sheryl Sandberg, Meta's chief operating officer.
  • Sheryl Sandberg has stepped down as Meta's chief operating officer after 14 years at the company.
  • During her tenure, Sandberg pioneered her own brand of feminism and weathered high-profile scandals.
  • Here's how Sandberg got her start in tech and became Meta's second-in-command.
Sheryl Sandberg was born on August 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C. Her father was an ophthalmologist and her mother taught French at a local college. She has two younger siblings: a brother named David and a sister named Michelle.
washington dc
An aerial view of Washington, D.C.

Source: The New Yorker

The family moved to North Miami Beach when Sheryl was 2 years old. Her parents helped create the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry and turned their home into a safe haven for Soviet Jews looking to escape anti-Semitism.
Miami beach
People on the beach in Miami Beach, Florida.

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg always shone in school, and was in the National Honor Society. "In public schools, for a girl to be smart was not good for your social life," her mother, Adele, told The New Yorker. She also taught aerobics while in high school.
Sheryl Sandberg - 60 Minutes

Source: The New Yorker, Bloomberg

She went on to attend Harvard University, where both of her siblings also went. She majored in economics, and started an organization at college called Women in Economics and Government. She graduated with her undergraduate degree in 1991.
Harvard University
Students gather on Harvard's campus.

Source: Miami Herald, CNN Money

At college, Sandberg researched with future US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who would serve as an important mentor for Sandberg in the beginning phases of her career. Summers served as her thesis advisor in college, then hired her to work for him at the World Bank after she graduated.
larry summers
Larry Summers.

Source: The New Yorker, CNN Money

Sandberg stayed at the World Bank for a year, during which she traveled to India to help curb the spread of leprosy. She then returned to Harvard to get an MBA, and worked for a year at the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
sheryl sandberg
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Source: CNN Money, Guardian

Sandberg said her parents instilled in her that the time to find a man was in college, because "the good ones go young." At age 24, Sandberg married a businessman named Brian Kraff, but they got divorced after only a year. Sandberg told Cosmopolitan she was nervous her divorce would prevent her from ever meeting someone else.
Sheryl Sandberg

Source: Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker

Not long after Sandberg finished up her MBA in 1995, her mentor, Summers, joined President Bill Clinton's administration. Sandberg followed Summers to D.C. to work for him, and eventually became his chief of staff when he was named Treasury secretary in 1999.
larry summers
Larry Summers.

Source: CNN Money

But after the Democrats lost the 2000 election, Sandberg decided to move to Silicon Valley to join the booming tech industry. At the time, Google was a small company with less than 300 people that wasn't making a profit. However, she found the company's mission attractive: "to make the world's information freely available."
larry page and sergey brin
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Source: The New Yorker, CNN Money 

When courting her, Eric Schmidt — Google's CEO at the time — reportedly called her every week, and told her, "Don't be an idiot ... This is a rocket ship. Get on it." Sandberg joined Google as the business-unit general manager in 2001 and took over the company's ad program, which had four people working on it at the time.
Sheryl Sandberg - 60 Minutes
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Sheryl Sandberg.

Source: The New Yorker

In 2004, Sandberg married her longtime best friend Dave Goldberg, whom she had met a decade before and dated for five years. They had a son in 2005, and a daughter born two years later. "The most important career choice you'll make is who you marry," Sandberg said at Insider's Ignition conference in 2011. Goldberg became the CEO of SurveyMonkey in 2009.
sheryl sandberg dave goldberg
Sandberg and Dave Goldberg.

Source: Guardian, Business Insider

Sandberg and her family have lived in a 9,200-square-foot mansion in Menlo Park since 2013. The home has six bedrooms, a wine room, gym, movie theater, basketball court, and a giant waterfall. It's only a 20-minute drive from Meta's headquarters.
A man takes pictures in front of a sign showing logo of Meta outside Facebook headquarters on October 28, 2021 in Menlo Park, California.
Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

Source: Insider

Google grew immensely during Sandberg's time there, and she was instrumental in landing a deal with AOL to make Google its search engine. She was eventually promoted to Google's vice president for global online sales and operations.
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of Google logo in this illustration picture, April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Small toy figures are seen in front of Google logo in this illustration picture

Source: The New Yorker

But after nearly seven years at Google, Sandberg was ready for a new challenge. Schmidt proposed she become chief financial officer, but she turned it down for more responsibility. She asked about becoming chief operating officer, but Google executives reportedly didn't want to rock the boat and mess with the three men already in charge of decision-making: Schmidt and Google's two cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
sheryl sandberg
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Source: The New Yorker

Fortunately, someone else was pursuing her: Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old whose company, Facebook, was still relatively new. He introduced himself to Sandberg at a Christmas party in 2007, and started to court her to come work at Facebook.
sheryl sandberg mark zuckerberg

Source: New Yorker

Sandberg began to meet with Zuckerberg for dinner once or twice a week, first at a cafe in Menlo Park and then at Sandberg's home. Sandberg returned to that restaurant, Flea Street Cafe, for an interview with Oprah in 2013. After six weeks of dinner meetings, Zuckerberg eventually offered her the position as Facebook's chief operating officer.
sheryl sandberg oprah
Sheryl Sandberg and Oprah.

Source: Fortune, The New Yorker

 

Zuckerberg told The New Yorker that Sandberg "handles things I don't want to." "There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization," Zuckerberg said in 2011. "And then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don't usually tend to be in the same person."
mark zuckerberg sheryl sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg and, in the background, Mark Zuckerberg.

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg is known by many as an advocate for women's rights in the workplace. Sandberg has campaigned against using the word "bossy," arguing that it damages women's confidence and desire to pursue leadership roles. She has also partnered with Getty Images to take stock photos that are meant to change the perception of women in the workforce.
sheryl sandberg

Source: Insider

In March 2013, Sandberg published "Lean In," a best-selling book that recounts some of her own personal work experience as well as advice for women to pursue top positions in their field. "A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes," Sandberg wrote in the book.
sheryl lean in
But not everyone has been so crazy about Sandberg's advice to lean in. Some critics have said that it's not enough to tell women to have confidence if they're not being given the opportunity to succeed. Others say it's unfair to use Sandberg as a model for all women, as she is able to afford a nanny and a staff at work.
Sheryl Sandberg, Meta COO, shrugs while standing on stage at a Facebook event

Source: The New Yorker

Sandberg announced in 2014 she and her husband would sign onto the Giving Pledge, a commitment by billionaires to donate at least half of their fortune during their lifetime or upon their death. The Giving Pledge was launched by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates.
Sheryl Sandberg
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at the 2018 Code conference

Source: Forbes

Tragedy stuck in 2015 when Goldberg, Sandberg's husband, died suddenly after he collapsed while on vacation with his family in Mexico. Reports first indicated he died from head trauma after falling while on the treadmill, but Sandberg later revealed his death was due to a cardiac arrhythmia.
Dave Goldberg
Dave Goldberg.

Source: Insider

"[Dave] showed me the internet for the first time, planned fun outings, took me to temple for the Jewish holidays, introduced me to much cooler music than I had ever heard. He gave me the experience of being deeply understood, truly supported and completely and utterly loved — and I will carry that with me always," Sandberg wrote on Facebook a day after Goldberg's death.
sheryl sandberg dave goldberg
Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg.

Source: Insider

Following Goldberg's death, Sandberg penned an essay about dealing with grief and "kick(ing) the s--t" out of option B in life when plan A is no longer available. Two years later, Sandberg turned that lesson into a book about her personal experience dealing with death and other stories of adversity.
sheryl sandberg

Source: Insider

Sandberg also joined the board of directors of SurveyMonkey — the company her late husband served as CEO for — two months after his death. When SurveyMonkey went public in 2018, the company said Sandberg would donate her 10% stake to the charity she founded in her husband's honor: The Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation.
Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey
Dave Goldberg.

Source: Insider

A year after Goldberg's death, Sandberg began dating longtime friend Bobby Kotick, the CEO of video gaming company Activision Blizzard. Kotick was reportedly a "huge source of strength" for Sandberg in the wake of her late husband's death. However, the couple split in early 2019.
Sheryl Sandberg bobby Kotick
Bobby Kotick and Sheryl Sandberg.

Source: Page Six

Sandberg publicly backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. In return, Sandberg was reportedly on Clinton's shortlist for one of two cabinet positions: Treasury secretary and Commerce secretary, neither of which came to fruition after Clinton's defeat.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton.

Source: Insider

Sandberg spoke out against former President Donald Trump's policies on abortion and immigration. A day after Trump reinstated the global gag rule that banned federally funded groups from discussing abortion, Sandberg donated $1 million to Planned Parenthood.
sheryl sandberg donald trump
Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Pence, and Donald Trump.

Source: Insider

Sandberg, and Facebook, drew heavy scrutiny in the wake of the 2016 election. Facebook revealed that Russia paid for thousands of ads on the platform to interfere with and manipulate political sentiment. The New York Times later reported that Sandberg tried to downplay implicating Russia in spreading misinformation on Facebook.
Sheryl Sandberg

Source: The New York Times

Then in March 2018, details about the Cambridge Analytica scandal surfaced. The data-analytics company had harvested data from 87 million Facebook users and used it to target voters during the 2016 election. Sandberg admitted that Facebook knew about the improper data use back in 2015, but didn't make it public.
Mark Zuckerberg question mark

Source: Insider

Zuckerberg reportedly blamed Sandberg for the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and told her she should have been more aggressive in dealing with the "troublesome content." After meeting with Zuckerberg, Sandberg had told friends she worried whether she'd keep her job at Facebook, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Mark Zuckerberg sheryl sandberg
Facebook's executives have repeatedly pledged to do better about cleaning up the platform, but the company has a long way to go.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

A bombshell New York Times report later revealed that Facebook directed a PR firm called Definers Public Affairs to conduct an "aggressive lobbying campaign" to blame billionaire George Soros — a Facebook critic — for spreading anti-Facebook sentiment. Both Zuckerberg and Sandberg denied knowing about Definers' activities, and communications head Elliot Schrage instead took the fall. However, Sandberg later admitted she had received a "small number of emails where Definers was referenced."
George Soros
George Soros.

Source: Insider

The New York Times report put mounting scrutiny on Sandberg's role at Facebook. Although Facebook staffers threw their support behind Sandberg, investors reportedly questioned whether they should be worried Sandberg would leave the company.
Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook

Source: Insider

Despite the speculation, Sandberg remained at the company. In 2018, she was called to testify before Congress alongside then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey regarding Russian interference in the US election.
Jack Dorsey Sheryl Sandberg Twitter Facebook Senate
Sheryl Sandberg and then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Source: Insider

Through it all, Sandberg's net worth has continued to rise. She's currently worth an estimated $1.6 billion, making her one of the 20 richest self-made women in the US.
Sheryl Sandberg Facebook COO
Sheryl Sandberg Facebook COO.

Source: Forbes

In early 2020, Sandberg announced that she had gotten engaged to Tom Bernthal, the founder and CEO of a consulting firm in Los Angeles. The couple reportedly met through the brother of Sandberg's late husband, and started dating in spring 2019.

Engaged!!! @tom_bernthal, you are my everything. I could not love you more.

A post shared by Sheryl Sandberg (@sherylsandberg) on Feb 3, 2020 at 10:00am PST

Source: People, Insider

 

In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that while she was dating Kotick, Sandberg pushed the UK tabloid the Daily Mail to drop reporting on a temporary restraining order filed against him by a former girlfriend. Sandberg reportedly worried that the Mail's story would damage her reputation as a champion of women.
CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, speaks onstage during 'Managing Excellence: Getting Consistently Great Results' at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 19, 2016 in San Francisco, California.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.

Source: Insider, The Wall Street Journal

In June, Sandberg announced that she would step down as COO later this year, writing in a Facebook post that "it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life." Zuckerberg wrote that Sandberg is "a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way." She officially left her role on August 1, and her last day at Meta will be September 30.
sheryl sandberg mark zuckerberg facebook
Facebook executives Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg walk together at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.

Source: Insider, SEC

Madeline Stone and Paige Leskin contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Read the original article on Business Insider


Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/p0ZLWKV
Sheryl Sandberg has officially stepped down as Meta's COO. Here's how she got her start in tech and became No. 2 at one of the world's most influential companies. Sheryl Sandberg has officially stepped down as Meta's COO. Here's how she got her start in tech and became No. 2 at one of the world's most influential companies. Reviewed by mimisabreena on Thursday, August 04, 2022 Rating: 5

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