It is the end of an age. After 14 years, my good friend and partner Sheryl Sandberg leaves the position of COO of Meta.
When Sheryl joined me in 2008, she was only 23 years old and knew almost nothing about running a business. We had created a great product, the Facebook website, but we still didn’t have a profitable business and we were struggling to move from a small startup to a real organization. Sheryl designed our advertising business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a business. It created opportunities for millions of people around the world and deserves much of what Meta is today.
It is unusual for a business association like ours to last so long. I think ours did it because Sheryl is an amazing person, leader, partner and friend. She cares deeply about the people in her life and is generous with fostering relationships and helping you grow as a person. He has taught me a lot and has been there for many of the important moments of my life, both personally and professionally. Whether it’s going through the different transitions we’ve made as a company over the years, or when it supported me and Priscilla as we overcame the challenges of having children, our partnership has always been deeper than just a business.
I will miss running this business with Sheryl. But I am glad that he continues to serve on our board of directors so that we can benefit from his wisdom and experience even after he has left his day-to-day management role in the coming months.
Looking ahead, I don’t plan on replacing Sheryl’s role in our existing structure. I’m not sure that’s possible, as she’s a superstar who defined the role of COO in her unique way. But even if it were possible, I think Meta has gotten to the point where it makes sense for our products and business groups to be more integrated, rather than having all the business functions and operations organized separately from our products.
One of Sheryl’s greatest legacies is the amazing team she has built. Some of these leaders have already taken on more important roles, such as Nick Clegg as President of Global Affairs and Jennifer Newstead as Legal Director.
Marne Levine, our business director and the top business person who manages our partnerships, will inform Javier Olivan that our Ads and Business Platform product group is closer to the Meta Business Group.
Javi will become our next Chief Operating Officer as he now directs our integrated ads and business products, as well as continuing to lead our infrastructure, integrity, analytics, marketing, corporate development and growth teams. But this role will be different from what Sheryl has done. It will be a more traditional COO position where Javi will focus internally and operationally, based on his solid track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous. As part of this, Molly Cutler, our Vice President of Strategic Response, will join Javi’s team and report to Naomi Gleit.
Justin Osofsky will report to Chris Cox. In addition to his role in overseeing Instagram’s global operations and business organization, Justin will now take on additional responsibility for creating a business and product content team that will train our referral systems. AI to help you discover the most interesting, relevant and personalized. content on Facebook and Instagram.
Lori Goler, our head of people, will now inform me directly. Maxine Williams, our diversity director, will continue her role on our People team, working on my staff as well.
All of these are talented and experienced leaders with whom I have worked closely over the years, and I am sure they will continue to do a great job in this new structure.
I’m sad because the day is coming when I won’t be working so closely with Sheryl. But more than anything, I am grateful for all he has done to build Meta. He has done so much for me, for our community and for the world, and we are all better for it.