Sheryl Sandberg

From Grokipedia

Sheryl Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is an American business executive, author, and philanthropist who served as chief operating officer of Meta Platforms from 2008 to 2022. A Harvard University graduate with degrees in economics and an MBA, she began her career as an economist at the World Bank and later as chief of staff to U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers before joining Google as vice president of global online sales and operations. At Meta, Sandberg oversaw business operations and scaled its advertising revenue model, which grew the company from a startup valued in the billions to a trillion-dollar enterprise amid rapid user expansion. She authored the 2013 bestseller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which encouraged women to seek leadership roles and inspired the creation of Lean In Circles for professional networking, though its emphasis on personal ambition over systemic barriers drew mixed empirical assessments of long-term workplace gender equity impacts. Sandberg's tenure at Meta was marked by significant achievements in monetization alongside controversies, including the platform's involvement in data privacy breaches like Cambridge Analytica and aggressive responses to reputational challenges through lobbying and content policies. She stepped down as COO in 2022 and left the board in 2024, shifting focus to philanthropy via LeanIn.Org and other initiatives.

In brief

Sandberg learned Washington as Lawrence Summers's aide, then learned scale at Google. Facebook hired her to turn a campus hit into a company that paid for itself.

Lean In made her a cultural figure as well as an executive. She left the day-to-day in 2022 with the board seat still warm.