Cheryl Sandberg will step down as chief operating officer of Meta Platforms after 14 years as its second-chief executive, where she helped turn Facebook into the social media giant it is today. Sandberg will step down as the company’s No. 2 leader in the fall after spending the next few months working with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to transfer his direct reports. She will keep a seat on Meta’s board.
Zuckerberg called the change “the end of an era” and said he had no plans to replace Sandberg’s exact role in the company’s structure. Its current chief growth officer, Javier Olivan, who is already one of the company’s most powerful but lesser-known executives, will take over as chief operating officer in what Zuckerberg says is a “more traditional” chief executive role. Chief Operating Officer. The move, combined with Meta’s attorney general and executive director of human resources, who now report directly to Zuckerberg, further consolidated power under his control.
Zuckerberg recently rebranded the company from Facebook to Meta and is investing heavily in bringing its social technologies beyond 2D to build the metaverse through virtual and augmented reality. Sandberg joined the company in 2008 to help the then 23-year-old Zuckerberg navigate the IPO and build the advertising business she has run ever since. Prior to that, she spent six years at Google building her online sales channels for AdWords and AdSense. In recent years, Meta’s advertising business has come under attack from all sides as Apple and regulators fight against Facebook’s ability to target ads, contributing to a sharp drop in Meta’s revenue and share price growth.
According to many people who have worked with her, Sandberg’s departure is long overdue. “Leaving her will be an incredibly shocking departure for almost everyone in the company,” said Drew Pusseteri, a recently retired member of Meta’s communications department, in a tweet on Wednesday.
According to current and former CEOs, Sandberg has become less involved in the cores and bolts of Meta’s advertising business in recent years than in earlier parts of Facebook’s history, although she remains the public voice of the business in profit talks. of the company. Meanwhile, she has steadily elevated her team leaders to higher positions, through the promotion of Marne Levine to Chief Business Officer, and most recently elevated Chief of Staff Nick Clegg to the role of President, reporting to Zuckerberg.
Sandberg has informed Zuckerberg of her intention to retire last weekend, according to a source. Although she was recently accused of using her position to crush negative reports about her ex-boyfriend and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotik, her decision to leave Meta was not related to the scandal, the man added, saying Facebook’s internal review on the issue has recently been closed.
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