$2bn woman: how Sheryl Sandberg became one of tech’s most successful bosses

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 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 (£1.6bn).

Sandberg, now 54, left that role a year and a half ago and on Wednesday night she announced she was leaving Meta’s board too. “This feels like the right time to step away,” she wrote in a Facebook post, as Meta was “well-positioned for the future”.

“Thank you Sheryl for the extraordinary contributions you have made to our company and community over the years,” said Zuckerberg, the world’s sixth-richest person with an estimated $133bn personal fortune. “Your dedication and guidance have been instrumental in driving our success and I am grateful for your unwavering commitment to me and Meta over the years.”

Sandberg was one of six executive officers named in the prospectus when Facebook filed for an initial public offering in 2012. With her exit, only Zuckerberg remains of the six. She had been seen as so critical to the success of the company that she was named alongside the founder as one of the key personnel who posed a potential risk to