Sandberg reflected on her time at Facebook
in a statement announcing her departure, noting the importance of social media and mentioning India.
“Just last month, I heard about how in India, the Self Employed Women’s Association connects over WhatsApp to organize and increase their collective bargaining power,” Sandberg said. “I’ve loved traveling the world (physically and virtually) to meet small business owners and hear their stories,” she added.
Sandberg also recalled her first meeting with Mark Zuckerberg.
“When I first met Mark, I was not really looking for a new job – and I could have never predicted how meeting him would change my life. We were at a holiday party at Daniel L Rosensweig’s house. I was introduced to Mark as I walked in the door, and we started talking about his vision for Facebook,” she said.
Sandberg, 52, was one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful women, and her exit comes as the social media behemoth confronts a bleak future and severe competition.
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Her departure from Facebook parent Meta will take effect in the fall, she said on the social media website, adding that she intends to stay on the board of directors.
“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,” she wrote.
Under her leadership, the firm was rocked by disclosures in 2018 that Cambridge Analytica, a British consultancy, had inappropriately acquired data on millions of Facebook users in the US in order to target election advertising.
Sandberg admitted in 2019 that the world’s largest social network needed to regain public trust after repeated scandals involving privacy violations.
