Sheryl Sandberg, one of the prominent managers of Silicon Valley, which helped establish Facebook as a global technology giant, has surprisingly resigned as Meta’s chief operating officer.
On Wednesday, Sandberg, 52, announced her decision in a long post on social media, in which she wrote: “When I took the job in 2008, I hoped to be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it’s time to start to write the next chapter of my life. ”
She will remain on Meta’s board of directors, and another of the company’s CEOs, Javier Olivan, will take over as chief operating officer when Sandberg leaves in the autumn.
The news of her resignation comes two months after her name was embroiled in a scandal of abuse of influence. It is about the pressure on the British tabloid that Sandberg exerted in order not to publish material about her ex-boyfriend – Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotik.
The story, which never came out in the media, is based on court documents revealing that Kotik’s ex-girlfriend received a temporary restraining order against him after allegations of harassment.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sandberg’s advisers feared that the story could damage her image as a defender of women, so they formed a team of Facebook staff who worked to destroy the story.
Facebook has investigated whether Sandberg’s actions violate the company’s rules, but the findings were not made public, but it was announced that the investigation was completed.
But after Sandberg’s resignation announcement, a Meta spokeswoman said her departure was not linked to reports of the Kotik incident, and she had not been fired or forced to leave.
Sheryl Sandberg has been a key figure in Facebook’s expansion from a free social network launched at a Harvard dormitory to one of the world’s dominant platforms, with nearly 3 billion users worldwide.
Often referred to as the “adult in the room” in the early days of Facebook’s rise, she was the second person in the company after Mark Zuckerberg to be 23 and inexperienced when he started running the company, while Sandberg, 38, arrived in her after many years of work as a manager in advertising at Google.
Who is Sheryl Sandberg?
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and Facebook’s “number two” group, announced her engagement to the head of a consulting company, Reuters reported.
Fifty-year-old Sandberg posted a photo of herself with 46-year-old Tom Burntol, co-founder and CEO of Kelton Global, on Facebook and Instagram. “Engaged! Tom Burnton, you are my everything. I could not love you more,” she wrote below her. They have a total of five children from their previous marriages – two for Sheryl and three for Bernthal, who is divorced.
Sandberg lost her first husband, Dave Goldberg, in a ridiculous accident in 2015 after 11 years of marriage.
One of the most senior women in the US corporate world, Sandberg is also the author of bestsellers, including the feminist “Decide” and the book “Option B”, describing efforts to cope with the sudden death of her husband.
It is also considered a balancing factor against the background of Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook with the motto: “Move fast and break things.”
In his biography, Berntol has worked at the White House under Bill Clinton and as an Emmy Award-winning television producer at NBC News.
