$2bn woman: How Sheryl Sandberg became one of tech’s top bosses

Sandberg was once considered so critical to Facebook’s success that her exit was seen as potential risk to investors’ money

Sheryl Sandberg on Wednesday night announced she was leaving Meta’s board.

Mark Zuckerberg hired Sheryl Sandberg as Facebook’s chief operating officer in 2008 as the social network was growing fast and trying to attract investment. Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, was just 23 — Sandberg, then 38, was deemed “the adult in the room”.

The former sales executive at Google and chief of staff at the US Treasury rose to become one of the most influential figures in the global technology sector and one of very few women at the top of the industry. She also made a lot of money — after selling most of her stake in Facebook’s parent company, Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, she is now worth close to $2bn (€1.84bn).