Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s right-hand man and a key Facebook figure for 14 years, has resigned

“After 14 years I will leave Meta,” he said on Facebook on Wednesday. Sheryl SandbergCOO of the US social media giant, who will remain on the company’s board of directors.

He assured that in recent years “alongside Mark” Zuckerberg, president and co-founder of the social network, were “a privilege”, at a time when the Californian group is being criticized by politicians and civil society organizations for its business model.

“It’s the end of an era,” commented the millionaire on his Facebook profile, recalling that in 2008, when he hired Sandberg, he was 23 years old and I didn’t know “nothing about running companies.”

Sandberg was 38 at the time and had a career in prestigious organizations such as the World Bank or the McKinsey consulting firm. She was also in the Treasury Department as HR Director and at Google as Vice President responsible for international sales and operations.

Meta has informed AFP that Javi Olivan will be the new director of operations, but Zuckerberg does not plan to replace him Sandberg’s work as it was.

Meta’s business model, based on large-scale targeted advertising that requires a lot of personal data, has sparked controversy after controversy since 2016.

Many authorities accuse him of abuse of dominance, such as his neighbor Google, world leader in digital advertising.

Sandberg used her success with Facebook to raise her profile, especially among women in the workplace.

In 2013 he published the book “Leaning on: women, work and the will to lead”which focuses on the challenges women face in the workplace and what they can do to advance their careers.

in 2015 faced the unexpected death of her husband Dave Goldberg, who suffered a cardiac arrhythmia and collapsed on a treadmill. Sandberg spoke extensively about how to cope with the pain of Goldberg’s death and, in 2017, published a book called “Option B” focused on the topic.

Prior to Facebook, Sandberg worked at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration, then joined Google in 2001 and helped grow its advertising business.

A company under fire

Meta has been targeted in recent years for its enormous influence, its lack of success in stopping the spread of disinformation and malicious material and its one-time acquisitions of rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg and other executives have been forced to testify before Congress multiple times in the past three years, though Sandberg has largely escaped the spotlight.

Currently, the company faces a Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit and could be scrutinized by other agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission after a whistleblower filed a complaint about his efforts to combat hate on his platform.

Zuckerberg will certainly consider in the future whether Sandberg’s current replacement is the best fit for the job.