Sheryl Sandberg leaves Meta board

New York
CNN
—

Sheryl Sandberg, Meta's former longtime COO, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that she will not remain on the company's board after her term expires in May.

“With a heart full of gratitude and a mind full of memories, I have informed the Meta Board of Directors that I will not run for re-election next May,” Sandberg said. mail.

Sandberg's departure comes after she spent more than 14 years as the company's chief operating officer, in addition to 12 years on its board of directors. Sandberg Step down She will step down from her position as COO in the fall of 2022, marking the end of her term Great period During which she helped grow one of the most influential companies in the world and witnessed significant criticism as well.

Sandberg said in her post that she would leave the board of Facebook's parent company to focus more on philanthropy, but added that she would continue to work as an advisor to Meta.

She added that Meta's current leadership team under CEO Mark Zuckerberg “has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Meta's business is strong and well-positioned for the future, so this seems like the right time to step away.”

“Thank you, Cheryl, for the extraordinary contributions you have made to our company and community over the years,” Zuckerberg said in a comment on her post. “Your dedication and guidance have been instrumental in our success and I am grateful for your unwavering commitment to me and to Meta over the years.”

Sandberg's work through her charitable organization Lean In focuses on helping women achieve their goals in the workplace and company culture, and her book of the same title helped catapult her to fame when it was published in 2013.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sandberg's decision to leave the board.

Sandberg was already a prominent figure in the technology industry when she joined the company, then called Facebook, in 2008, after having been Google's vice president of global online sales and operations. Before joining Google, she held senior positions at the World Bank and the Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton.

In her early years at Facebook, she was often referred to as “Adult supervision“For a company run by a very young founder.

Partnering with Zuckerberg, Sandberg helped grow Facebook's revenue from about $150 million in 2007 to more than $3.7 billion in 2011, the year before it went public. She also gained new fame as one of the most influential women in technology.

In 2022, the year Sandberg stepped down as COO, Meta posted total annual revenue of $116.6 billion. The company's stock price has risen more than 860% since its IPO in 2012.

“Sheryl designed our advertising business, hired great people, shaped our management culture, and taught me how to run a company,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post in June 2022 when Sandberg announced she was leaving the COO role.

But Sandberg was also among the company's top brass as the company faced increasing scrutiny over a range of issues — everything from accusations of corruption. Undermining democracy And Incitement to genocide to Victimization of teenage users.

She also helped supervise A Huge rename In 2021 from Facebook to Meta which reflects the company's ambitions to reorient itself around building an immersive digital world called the “metaverse”. Meta's ambitious spending on this project raised shareholder concerns and was followed by deep cuts at the company last year.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

Riley Gutierrez McDiarmid, Brian Fung and Richie Iyengar contributed to this report.