Sheryl Sandberg Leans Out, Leaves Facebook

Sheryl Sandberg is officially leaning out and leaving her post as the Chief Operating Officer at Meta, aka the parent company of Facebook.

On Wednesday, reports broke that the longtime Facebook employee, who had joined the company back in 2008, would be moving on from her post and be replaced by Javier Olivan. Olivan has “led the company’s growth efforts for years” and is slated to take Sandberg’s place as COO when she officially steps down in the fall, as per Bloomberg.

In a statement the 52-year-old posted on, aptly, Facebook, she confirmed she’d remain on the board of Meta and waxed poetic about her time at Facebook and Meta:

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. I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women. And as Tom and I get married this summer, parenting our expanded family of five children. Over the next few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports and I will leave the company this fall. I still believe as strongly as ever in our mission, and I am honored that I will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors.

Sandberg has become a household name over the years for both her role at Facebook, then Meta, and her blockbuster 2013 book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which she co-authored with Nell Scovell. Lean In was positioned as a “sort of feminist manifesto” and took the world by storm, in both good ways and bad.

The news of the author and billionaire stepping down also arrives on the heels of many calling for her to do so, after the mountains of issues Facebook and Meta have faced over the last few years—particularly with hate speech and misinformation running rampant on their respective platforms.