Five years. That is Sheryl Sandberg guessed how long she would be on Facebook, now called Meta. extremely successful advertising business and established policy operations in DC. And to establish herself as an international standard-setter for female executives. Then she’ll quit — maybe to run for office or lead a giant company like Disney.
But to this day, 14 years later, Sheryl Sandberg announced She is leaving the company. For an aspiring corporate superstar like Sandberg, 14 years in the same position — and not at the top — is an eternity. Most observers assume that she left a while ago, or was forced to leave due to the company’s reputation collapsing after being relentless. privacy and content management scandal or simply tired of having to protect them all the time. But she’s been around for so long that even the name of the company has had to change.
So who could deny her the flowery prose in her 1,529-word farewell post — matched with a “I have personal news” essay on Medium, but faithfully posted on Facebook blue App Feed — where she deeply thanks her colleagues and prides herself on all the good her company does for users and small business owners. She even cited some random women in Poland selling stuffed animals on the platform. Like every other public communication coming from her, it was crafted with care, so much so that you could hardly tell that the company was among the highest paying companies in the world. The harsh part of the news was not in her upbeat resignation letter, but in Zuckerberg’s letter goodbye to her.
Sandberg’s tenure will always be overshadowed by the deal she made with Zuckerberg when she joined. While she reported to Zuckerberg, the then 23-year-old CEO gave her immense autonomy over certain parts of the company — the non-product areas he cared about the least. It makes perfect sense for Sandberg to be responsible for selling advertising. But according to The Deal, her world also includes media, lobbying, policy and other non-technical areas. At one point, the chief security officer reported to the general counsel, who reported to Sandberg. When things fell apart after the 2016 election, the troubles in Sheryl’s world slowly found their way to Zuckerberg. The consequences are disastrous. Zuckerberg then explained to me that he doesn’t see The Deal as a mistake but as a necessity. “It would be impossible, without living experience in all of these areas, to understand all the different parts of what it takes to run a company,” he told me.
In his post today, Zuckerberg paid proper tribute to his outgoing COO. But while Sandberg’s essay paints her tenure in the brightest colors imaginable, Zuckerberg’s statement is a major corporate correction. He claims that Sandberg’s departure is the end of an era – and then he demands a change in Meta’s organization to ensure that nothing like that era ever happens again. Sandberg’s hypothetical successor, Javier Olivan, will take on “the more traditional COO role,” he wrote. Olivan, who has joined the company’s fugitive development organization, won’t run parts of the company on his own as Sheryl initially did.
Some of them have been campaigned. The first big change came last year when Zuckerberg assigned responsibility policy and communication with Senior VP Nick Clegg, who previously reported to Sandberg. The chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead, was also moved to report directly to Zuckerberg. But today, even as Zuckerberg celebrates Sandberg, he tore up her organization and put it directly under his control. The head of human resources, Lori Goler, will also report to him. That puts Maxine Williams, the chief diversification officer, also within Zuckerberg’s range.
