“After 14 years, I will leave Meta,” he declared on Facebook this Wednesday. Sheryl SandbergCOO of the US social media giant, who will remain on the firm’s board.
He assured that these years “next to Mark” Zuckerberg, president and co-founder of the social network, were “a privilege”, at a time when the Californian group is criticized by politicians and civil society organizations for its business model.
“It’s the end of an era,” the millionaire commented on his Facebook profile, while recalling that in 2008, when he hired Sandberg, he was 23 years old and I did not know “nothing about running companies.”
Sandberg was 38 at the time and had a career in prestigious organizations such as the World Bank or the consulting firm McKinsey. She was also at the Treasury Department as a director of personnel and at Google as a vice president in charge of international sales and operations.
Meta informed AFP that Javi Olivan will be the new director of operations, but Zuckerberg does not plan to replace him Sandberg’s job as it was.
Meta’s economic model, based on large-scale, targeted advertising that requires a lot of personal data, has sparked controversy after controversy since 2016.
Many authorities accuse him of abuse of a dominant position, like his neighbor Google, world leader in digital advertising.
Sandberg used her success with Facebook to raise her own profile, especially among women in the workplace.
In 2013, he published the book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”which focuses on the challenges women face in the workplace and what they can do to advance their careers.
in 2015 faced the unexpected death of her husband Dave Goldberg, who suffered a cardiac arrhythmia and collapsed on a treadmill. Sandberg has spoken extensively about dealing with grief over Goldberg’s death, and in 2017, she published a book titled “Option B” focused on the topic.
Before Facebook, Sandberg worked at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration, then joined Google in 2001 and helped grow his advertising business.
Sandberg testifying in front of the Senate in DC. AFP Photo
A company under fire
Meta has come under fire in recent years for its enormous influence, its lack of success in stopping the spread of misinformation and harmful material, and its one-time acquisitions of rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg and other executives have been forced to testify before Congress multiple times in the past three years, though Sandberg has largely escaped that spotlight.
Currently, the company faces an antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission and could come under scrutiny from other agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission after a whistleblower filed a complaint about his efforts to combat hate on his platform.
Zuckerberg will surely evaluate in the future whether Sandberg’s current replacement is the best fit for the job.
