Who is Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s right-hand woman? Meta’s COO of 14 years is stepping down from the company – but keeps a mighty net worth of US$1.5 billion
- She met the Meta (formerly Facebook) founder at a party years ago, and she’s since become an icon for aspiring female leaders in tech with her viral TED Talk and book, Lean In
- She says she’ll focus on more philanthropy after she leaves – however, she’s faced scrutiny for unaccounted charity money and use of corporate resources
Here’s what you need to know about the billionaire, from why she’s such an iconic figure in tech to her next moves.
She inspired women to get into tech and leadership roles
Sandberg worked at Google before she met Zuckerberg at a party and moved to Facebook, where she “taught [Zuckerberg] how to run a company”, as the CEO put it himself in a response to her post announcing her departure. The mother-of-two later admitted publicly that she would leave the office early to be able to see her children in the evening, which inspired other mothers to be open about doing the same.
Her viral TED Talk and Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead book pushed for women to have “a seat at the table” in male-dominated companies and from this grew her online community of “ambitious women creating a more equal and inclusive world”.
She has been public about overcoming tragedy
Sandberg has been married twice and her wedding to her current fiancé Tom Bernthal, a former NBC News producer, is planned for this year. She wed Brian Kraff in 1993 but they split the following year, and she married Dave Goldberg in 2004. But he suddenly passed away when they were on holiday in 2015. She admitted on The Ellen Show that it made her realise she was “resilient” and that she also lost confidence when he died.
“Father’s Day will always be bittersweet for me and my children. Dave’s absence feels larger on these days,” Sandberg wrote on Facebook in June. “Today, Tom and I and all five of our children will take time to honour his memory and remember what an incredible dad he was.”
She continued, “From the bottom of my heart, I’m thankful for Tom Bernthal and how he shows up as both a partner and a parent. He’s embraced my children as his own and allowed me to embrace his as my own.”