> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theamericanquorum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Sheryl Sandberg to Step Down as Meta COO After 14 Years; Javier Olivan Will Take a Narrower Operating Role - URL: https://www.theamericanquorum.com/taq-historical-2022-06-04-tech/ - Published: 2022-06-05T03:59:00.000Z - Updated: 2022-06-05T03:59:00.000Z - Description: Sheryl Sandberg will step down as Meta’s chief operating officer after 14 years, with Javier Olivan set to succeed her as Mark Zuckerberg reorganizes business and product leadership more tightly. - Author: Kenneth R. Deans Jr. - Tags: Tech, #Import 2026-08-31 13:00 MENLO PARK, Calif. — Sheryl Sandberg will step down as chief operating officer of Meta after 14 years, ending a partnership with Mark Zuckerberg that helped turn Facebook from a fast-growing social network with an uncertain business model into one of the world’s largest advertising companies. Meta disclosed Wednesday that Sandberg plans to leave the COO position after a transition period but remain on the company’s board. Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan is expected to become chief operating officer when that transition concludes, according to the company’s [June 1 regulatory filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000132680122000073/fb-20220528.htm?ref=theamericanquorum.com). ## Sandberg built the business structure around Facebook’s growth Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008, four years after its founding and before the company had established the advertising machinery that would ultimately fund its global expansion. Zuckerberg credited her with building the ads business, recruiting senior leaders and helping professionalize the company’s management in a [note announcing her departure](https://about.fb.com/news/2022/06/mark-zuckerberg-note/?ref=theamericanquorum.com). Her influence extended beyond advertising. As Facebook expanded internationally, acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, went public and became a central platform for political communication and digital commerce, Sandberg became one of the company’s most visible executives. She frequently represented Facebook with advertisers, policymakers and the public while Zuckerberg remained more closely associated with product direction. That division of labor made the partnership unusually durable in Silicon Valley. But it also placed Sandberg at the center of controversies involving data privacy, misinformation, political advertising and the company’s handling of harmful content. Her departure comes as Meta is trying to shift investor attention toward virtual and augmented reality while defending its core social-media advertising business from Apple privacy changes and competition from TikTok. ## Olivan will be COO, but Zuckerberg says the job will change Meta does not intend to recreate Sandberg’s position exactly. Zuckerberg said Olivan will take on a “more traditional COO role” focused internally on operations and execution, with responsibility spanning advertising and business products as well as infrastructure, integrity, analytics, marketing, corporate development and growth. The company filed an [amended Form 8-K](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000132680122000090/meta-20220528.htm?ref=theamericanquorum.com) after the initial disclosure, supplementing the executive-transition record. The filings formalize a management change that Zuckerberg described more broadly as an effort to integrate Meta’s product and business groups rather than keeping business operations organized separately. That distinction matters. Sandberg operated for years as a high-profile second-in-command with broad authority and an external profile approaching that of a chief executive. Olivan, a longtime Meta executive who has led growth and cross-company products, is expected to occupy a more operational role within a structure in which Zuckerberg retains direct strategic control. ## The departure comes during Meta’s most difficult transition in years Meta’s core advertising machine remains enormous, but the company is under pressure on several fronts. Apple’s privacy changes have reduced advertisers’ ability to track users across apps, TikTok is competing aggressively for younger audiences and Meta is spending billions of dollars on Reality Labs as Zuckerberg argues that immersive computing will form the next major platform. Sandberg’s exit therefore lands at a moment when the company is deliberately changing both its technology strategy and internal identity. [TechCrunch reported](https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/01/sheryl-sandberg-steps-down-facebook/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) that Olivan’s promotion accompanies a wider reorganization and noted Zuckerberg’s statement that Meta has reached a point where product and business groups should be more closely integrated. The timing also follows a sharp decline in Meta’s market value from its 2021 high. Investors have questioned whether the company can simultaneously defend Facebook and Instagram, respond to short-form video competition and fund a multiyear investment in metaverse technologies without sacrificing profitability. ## Sandberg leaves a complicated legacy inside technology and business Sandberg’s impact is measurable in the scale of the business she helped build. Facebook entered her tenure without a mature profit engine; Meta now derives the overwhelming majority of its revenue from advertising sold across Facebook and Instagram. [Fortune noted](https://fortune.com/2022/06/01/sheryl-sandberg-is-stepping-down-meta-facebook/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) that more than 200 million businesses use Meta products to reach customers, a figure Sandberg highlighted in announcing her departure. Her public role also expanded far beyond Meta. Her 2013 book “Lean In” and the organization built around it made her one of the most prominent voices in debates about women’s advancement in the workplace. At the same time, critics argued that an individual-focused approach to career advancement could not address structural barriers faced by many women. Sandberg said she plans to devote more attention to philanthropy and her foundation work. [Forbes reported](https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/06/01/sheryl-sandberg-to-leave-meta-after-14-years/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) that she described the decision as a desire to make philanthropic work a greater priority while expressing confidence in Meta. ## Meta is losing its most prominent business architect but not its board member The transition will not be immediate. Sandberg is expected to remain COO through a handoff period and then continue serving as a director. That gives Meta continuity while Olivan assumes responsibilities and the company adjusts reporting lines around the new structure. The departure nevertheless closes a distinctive era. Sandberg was not a founder, but she became central to the operating model that converted Facebook’s enormous user growth into advertising revenue at global scale. [The Washington Post described](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/01/sheryl-sandberg-leaves-facebook/?ref=theamericanquorum.com) the move as the end of a long-running executive partnership that had helped shape both the company and the wider technology industry. Meta now has to demonstrate that the system Sandberg helped build can function without her while the company is simultaneously attempting its most ambitious product transition. Olivan inherits an organization with extraordinary scale, but also one confronting slower growth, regulatory scrutiny and a strategic pivot whose financial returns remain uncertain. Zuckerberg’s decision not to replace Sandberg with another equally expansive No. 2 suggests that the next version of Meta will be organized more tightly around the chief executive himself.