It is the end of an era. After 14 years, my good friend Sheryl Sandberg is leaving the COO position of Meta.
When Sheryl joined me in 2008, I was only 23 years old and knew almost nothing about the company’s management. We built a great product – a Facebook website – but we didn’t have a profitable business yet and we struggled with the transition from a small startup to a real organization. Sheryl has created the architecture of our advertising business, hired great people, created our management culture and taught me how to run a company. It has created opportunities for millions of people around the world and deserves recognition for so much of what Meta is today.
It is unusual for a business partnership like ours to last that long. I think ours is because Sheryl is such an amazing person, leader, partner and friend. She cares deeply about the people in her life and is generous when she takes care of relationships and helps you grow as a person. She taught me so much and was at many important moments in my life, both personally and professionally. Our partnership has always been deeper than just business, whether we have been through the various changes we have made as a company over the years or when it has supported me and Priscilla in meeting the challenges of having children.
I will miss running this company with Sheryl. But I am glad that she will continue to serve on our board of directors so that we can benefit from her wisdom and experience even after she moves from her day-to-day management role in the coming months.
Looking to the future, I have no plans to replace Sheryl’s role in our current structure. I’m not sure it would be possible because he’s a superstar who defined the role of the COO in his own unique way. But even if that were possible, I think Meta has reached a point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all business and operational functions organized separately from our products.
One of Sheryl’s greatest legacies is the incredible team she has built. Some of these leaders have already taken on the larger roles they hold, such as Nick Clegg as President of Global Affairs and Jennifer Newstead as Chief Legal Officer.
Marne Levine, our Chief Commercial Officer and top sales officer who manages our partnership, will report to Javier Olivan to bring our Ads and Business Platform product group closer to the Meta Business Group.
Javi will become our next Chief Operating Officer, as he will now lead our integrated advertising and sales products In addition, we continue to lead our teams for infrastructure, integrity, analytics, marketing, business development and growth. But this role will be different from what Sheryl did. It will be a more traditional COO role, where Javi will focus internally and operationally, building on his strong experience, making our implementation more efficient and consistent. As part of this, Molly Cutler, our vice president of strategic response, joins Javi’s team and reports to Naomi Gleit.
Justin Osofsky reports to Chris Cox. In addition to his role overseeing Instagram’s global operations and business organization, Justin will now take on additional responsibilities for building a cross-business and product content team. which will train our AI referral systems to help you discover the most interesting, relevant and personalized content on Facebook and Instagram.
Lori Goler, our people’s leader, will now report directly to me. Maxine Williams, our Director of Diversity, will continue to play a role in our team of people and will work on my team.
They are all talented and experienced leaders with whom I have worked closely over the years, and I am confident that they will continue to do a great job in this new structure.
I’m sad that the day is coming when I won’t be working so closely with Sheryl. But more than anything, I’m grateful for everything she did to build Meta. She has done so much for me, for our community and for the world – and we are all better off.
#Note #Mark #Zuckerberg #Meta