Sheryl Sandberg’s career linked government service with advertising and business operations at Google and Facebook, the company renamed Meta Platforms in 2021. She joined Google in 2001 and moved to Facebook as chief operating officer in 2008, taking responsibility for sales and several other business functions.
Facebook reported $272 million in annual revenue for 2008. For 2021, Meta reported approximately $117.9 billion. Those company-wide results describe the scale of its expansion during Sandberg’s tenure; they do not measure her individual contribution.
From Harvard to government
Sandberg was born on August 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C., to Adele and Joel Sandberg. She grew up in a Jewish family that moved to North Miami Beach, Florida, when she was two.
At Harvard, Sandberg studied economics and met Lawrence Summers, who became her thesis adviser. Summers recruited her as a research assistant at the World Bank in 1991. She subsequently earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked at McKinsey & Company before joining Summers at the U.S. Treasury during President Bill Clinton’s administration. When Summers became Treasury secretary in 1999, she served as his chief of staff.
Advertising operations at Google and Facebook
Sandberg joined Google in late 2001 and became vice president of global online sales and operations. She built and managed online sales channels for AdWords and AdSense and oversaw global operations for Google’s consumer products.
Google reported $86.4 million in total revenue for 2001, of which $66.9 million came from advertising. Its annual advertising revenue reached approximately $16.4 billion in 2007.
In a 2012 Harvard Business School speech, Sandberg recalled advice from Google’s then-chief executive, Eric Schmidt, while she was considering the job: “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.”
Facebook announced Sandberg’s appointment on March 4, 2008, with a March 24 start date. The company said she would report to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and oversee sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, privacy and communications.
Privacy and platform manipulation
Sandberg’s tenure also encompassed scrutiny of Facebook’s handling of personal information and election interference. In written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 5, 2018, she acknowledged that Facebook had been too slow to identify and respond to Russian efforts to manipulate social media around the 2016 U.S. election.
In July 2019, Facebook agreed to a $5 billion penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it had violated a 2012 privacy order by misleading users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.
Lean In and women’s leadership
Alongside her corporate work, Sandberg advocated greater representation of women in leadership. In her 2011 Barnard College commencement speech, she called for women to be represented “at all levels, including the top” so that their voices would influence decisions.
In that speech, she encouraged women to seek partners who shared domestic responsibilities and to avoid stepping back from careers in anticipation of family demands they did not yet face. At Harvard Business School in 2012, she described careers as a jungle gym rather than a ladder and argued that leaders should encourage employees to challenge authority and provide honest feedback.
Her 2013 book, Lean In, developed her arguments about women’s advancement and prompted debate about individual ambition and structural barriers. Anne-Marie Slaughter argued that employers also needed to improve their policies. Sandberg described her approach as a practical effort to help women negotiate and advance while acknowledging the gender biases they faced.
