Facebook parent Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg is stepping down

The company formerly known as Facebook has a Chief Operating Officer who is stepping down.

In early 2008, when she joined Facebook, she helped turn the company into an advertising powerhouse and one of the most powerful companies in the tech industry, with a market cap that topped $1 trillion at one point.

The company's chief growth officer will take over as COO this fall. Meta's board of directors will continue to be served by Sandberg, who informed them of her decision this past weekend.

Over the next few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports. Meta is planning an internal reorganization to go along with the change.

I don't plan to replace her role in the structure. I'm not sure that would be possible since she's a superstar who defined the COO role in her own way.

Even if it were possible, I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products.

Meta has come under fire in recent years for its massive influence, its lack of success in stopping the spread of misinformation and harmful material, and its acquisitions of one-time rivals. In the last three years, Zuckerberg and other execs have been forced to testify before Congress multiple times. The company is currently facing an antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission and could see scrutiny from other agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission after a whistle blower filed a complaint about its efforts to combat hate on its platform.

She used her success with Facebook to elevate her own profile.

The book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead focuses on the challenges women face in the workplace and what they can do to advance their careers.

Dave Goldberg died of a cardiac arrhythmia on a treadmill in 2015. The grief of Goldberg was the subject of a book that was released in 2017:Option B.

Prior to Facebook, he worked in the Treasury Department of the Clinton administration, and then joined the search engine company, where he helped grow its advertising business.