Meta COO, Sheryl Sandberg announced in a Facebook post that she is leaving Meta as COO after 14 years. She joined Meta, then known as Facebook in 2008 from Google where she was Vice President, Online Sales & Operations.
She didn’t give a reason for leaving the company but according to Mark Zuckerberg in a related Facebook post, said that “she’ll continue to serve on our board of directors so we can benefit from her wisdom and experience even after she transitions out of her day-to-day management role in the coming months.”
He said he doesn’t plan to replace Sheryl’s role in the existing structure. He adds, “I’m not sure that would be possible since she’s a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way. But even if it were possible, I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products.”
He mentioned that Javier Olivan will become the next Chief Operating Officer but this role will be different from what Sheryl has done. “It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous.”
Mark Zuckerberg credited Sheryl helping the company in the very early years when he barely knew anything about running a company. He was 23 while she was 38.
In his own words, “When Sheryl joined me in 2008, I was only 23 years old and I barely knew anything about running a company. We’d built a great product — the Facebook website — but we didn’t yet have a profitable business and we were struggling to transition from a small startup to a real organization. Sheryl architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company. She created opportunities for millions of people around the world, and she deserves the credit for so much of what Meta is today.”
Sheryl said when she joined Meta in 2008, she thought it would be for five years. She never thought she would stay fourteen years. She says she is not sure what the future holds for her but she knows she will focus more on her foundation and philanthropic work.
Sheryl Sandberg mentioned she is getting married to Tom Bernthal this summer and they will be busy parenting their expanded family of five children.
