Sheryl Sandberg will be stepping down from the board of parent company Meta after spending 14 years at the business, turning Facebook from a simple tech start-up into a global advertising empire.
Sandberg – who is widely considered to have been the driving force behind Facebook’s digital advertising business model – will be leaving the board less than two years after stepping down from her executive role at the business, in June 2022. She first joined Facebook from Google in 2008.
The former chief operating officer has said she will become an adviser to the company after her departure.
During her time at Meta she was typically perceived as being founder Mark Zuckerberg’s second-in-command, stepping in for him on numerous occasions and taking responsibility for controversies such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
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She also fronted up to address ongoing concerns about using Facebook’s consumer data to power its hugely successful advertising business. In 2022, advertising accounted for 97% of the social media giant’s £92bn turnover.
“With a heart filled with gratitude and a mind filled with memories, I let the Meta board know that I will not stand for reelection this May,” Sandberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing her decision.
“After I left my role as COO, I remained on the board to help ensure a successful transition,” she added.
“The Meta business is strong and well positioned for the future, so this feels like the right time to step away.”
Zuckerberg also took to Facebook, where he thanked Sandberg for “the extraordinary contributions you have made to our company and community over the years”.
The EU recently ruled that Meta will need to ask explicit permission from users before showing them targeted advertising, after a series of regulatory rulings challenged the company’s main financial strategy.
Although the Mark Zuckerberg-owned firm argued that the way it processes user data was ‘legitimate’, it accepted the EU’s rulings and will now ask permission to gather audience data accordance with the new legislation.
