Sheryl Kara Sandberg is a renowned American technology executive, author and activist who currently serves in the capacity of Facebook’s chief operating officer (COO). Sandberg is also the founder of the company Leanin.org (known popularly as the Lean In Foundation). Sandberg became the first woman to be elected to Facebook’s board of directors in June 2012 after being elected by its existing board members unanimously.
Sandberg previously served as the chief of staff for Lawrence Summers, the United States Secretary of Treasury. Sandberg also worked at Google, serving as the Vice President of Google’s global online operations and sales before joining Facebook and played an instrumental role in the launch of Google.org., the company’s philanthropic arm. Additionally, she sits on the board of The Walt Disney Company, Women for Women International, Center for Global Development, V-Day and SurveyMonkey. Sandberg was named in By Time Magazine in their list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2012.
Early Life and Education
Sandberg was born on 28 August 1969 in Washington D.C. to parents Adele Einhorn and Joel Sandberg as the couple’s oldest child and raised in Miami Beach, Florida. Sandberg’s father served as an ophthalmologist while her mother was a French and English language teacher, who founded the non-profit organization ‘Ear Peace-Save Your Hearing. She was raised in a Jewish household along with her younger siblings, sister Michelle and brother David Sandberg.
Sandberg was a student of North Miami Beach High School, where she was class president in her Sophomore year and was a National Honour Society member. Sandberg enrolled into Harvard College in 1987 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1991. At Harvard, she co-founded the ‘Women in Economics and Government’ organization. She was later recruited by mentor and thesis adviser, professor Larry Summers to serve at World Bank as his research assistant and travelled to India to work on health projects. Sandberg also earned an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.
Career Rise
Sandberg served at McKinsey & Company as a management consultant for a year from 1995-96. She went back to working for Larry Summers from 1996 to 2001 during his tenure as United States Secretary of Treasury under the Bill Clinton Administration but left the job when the Republicans gained US Presidency in 2000. Sandberg started her career at Google Inc. in 2001 where she was named the Global Online Operations and Sales Vice President serving at the company until March 2008.
Sandberg who has earlier met Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg informally in late 2007, was hired by him in March 2008, as the company’s Chief Operations Officer because he deemed her “a perfect fit” for the role. Sandberg, after becoming a Facebook employee strove to find means to make the company profitable. While Facebook’s strategy early on was to build a “cool site”, allowing profits to follow, Sandberg proposed the idea of discreet advertising and the company became profitable by 2010. Sandberg oversees the business operations, which include sales, business development, marketing, public policy, resources and communications. She was named as the eighth member and first woman on the board of directors of Facebook in 2012.
Personal Life
Sandberg has been married twice. She was first married to Brian Kraft but their marriage lasted for only a year from 1993-94.
Sandberg then married Yahoo! executive Dave Goldberg in 2004, who later became the CEO of SurveyMonkey. Together they have two children; a boy and a girl. Sandberg’s husband passed in May 2015 after he fell off a treadmill and sustained injuries to his head which resulted in severe loss of blood. Sandberg lives with her family at Menlo Park, California.
Sandberg is in a relationship with her long-time friend and video game publishing company Activision Blizzard’s CEO Robert Kotick. The two fell in love after being friends for a long time. Activision is the owner of King Games last week, the company being the world’s most popular and addictive game, Candy Crush.
Sheryl Sandberg – Salary and Net Worth
Sandberg’s salary is an estimated US$24 million. She has an estimated net worth of approximately US$1.65 billion.