Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced her departure after 14 years with the firm.
In a Facebook post, Sandberg announced her retirement, saying she hoped to focus on her foundation and philanthropic work in the future.
Her departure comes as Meta experiences a drop in ad sales and faces increased competition from rivals like TikTok.
Sandberg is one of the most well-known female executives in the IT business. She wrote that when she joined the company back in 2008, she never thought of continuing with the company for five years. “It is time for me to write the next chapter of my life, fourteen years later,” she said.
When she made her announcement, Meta’s shares dropped by 4%.
Sandberg joined Facebook when it was still a startup founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout. She was a Google veteran who helped turn FB’s advertising division into a profit machine as it expanded to encompass Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
Last year, the business reported revenue of more than $117 billion and claimed that more than 2.8 billion individuals utilized one of its apps regularly.
Zuckerberg wrote in his Facebook post that Sandberg’s resignation signified the end of an era, noting that business cooperation like theirs lasting so long was unique.
Sandberg designed the company’s advertising business, acquired skilled people, built a management culture, and taught Zuckerberg how to run a firm.