In surprise move, Sheryl Sandberg leaves Facebook after 14 years

Sheryl Sandberg, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent executives who helped build Facebook into a global tech juggernaut, is stepping down as chief operating officer of Meta, Facebook's parent company.

Sandberg, 52, made the surprise announcement in a Facebook post on Wednesday, writing that: "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," Sandberg wrote. "I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is."

Sandberg will stay on the board of Meta, according to the company. Javier Olivan, another executive at the company, will takeover as chief operating officer when Sandberg departs the role this fall.

Sandberg was a pivotal figure in helping grow Facebook from a free social network dreamed up in a Harvard dorm to one of the most dominant social media platforms in the world, with nearly 3 billion users around the globe.

Often referred to as "the adult in the room" during the early days of Facebook's rise, she served as a seasoned No. 2 at company alongside co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was leading the company in his early 20s. Sandberg arrived at Facebook after years of working as a manager in advertising at Google.

At Facebook, Sandberg oversaw advertising strategy, hiring, firing and other management issues. Zuckerberg once said she "handles things I don't want to," he told the New Yorker in 2011. "She's much better at that."

Outside of the company, she became a public face of Facebook, sitting for interviews amid crises and schmoozing policymakers weighing regulations that would affect the company.

Her exit comes two months after The Wall Street Journal reported that Sandberg urged a British tabloid to back away from reporting on her former boyfriend Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.

The story, which was never published, was reportedly on court filings showing that an ex-girlfriend of Kotick's had received a temporary restraining order against him after harassment allegations.

The Journal reported that Sandberg's advisors worried the story could hurt Sandberg's image as an advocate for women, so a team including Facebook employees worked to have the story killed.

Facebook was reviewing whether Sandberg's actions violated company rules, according to the Journal.

Earlier this year, Kotick announced he was stepping down from Activision Blizzard amid a sexual harassment scandal. At the same time, Microsoft announced it would be acquiring the video game company.

A Meta spokeswoman said Sandberg's departure is unrelated to reports about the Kotick incident.

"She was not pushed out or fired," Meta spokeswoman Nkechi Nneji said.

Beyond serving as the No. 2 at Facebook, Sandberg has become a celebrity author, penning "Lean In," a book that became a touchstone in the push for greater gender equality in the workplace.

She has also served as the public face of the company as it reeled from crises over the years, including in the months following the Cambridge Analytica scandal over how the data-mining firm breached the personal data of millions of Facebook users in 2014. The firm would later assist the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

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