“I think Sheryl Sandberg deserves a lot of the credit for what Meta is today,” Zuckerberg   

*Paromita Das
After Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced her departure from Meta Platforms Inc, after 14 years, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg held a virtual meeting for over 70,000 employees.

“I think it’s difficult for us, sitting where we are today, with this really successful company, to put ourselves in what things were like when Sheryl joined to understand just how big an impact she’s had on this place,” he said during the meeting.
When asked about the first time he met Sandberg, Zuckerberg recalled being a 23-year-old man with no idea what he was doing.

“A lot of what Sheryl did is she architected our ads business, she hired a lot of great people, she built our management culture, and she taught me and so many other people here how to run a company,” says Zuckerberg.

“I think a lot of her legacy is that she just created opportunities for millions of people all over the world, and I think she deserves a lot of the credit for what Meta is today,” Zuckerberg said, avoiding questions about his relationship with Sandberg.
“I think it’s really unusual for a partnership like this to last so long; Sheryl says she expected it to last five years but it lasted 14. “I was hoping it would have lasted a little longer than five years,” he added.

“Sheryl is just such an amazing person and leader and partner and friend and like so much of what she did, she really focused on making the partnership work and she focuses on nurturing the relationships and helping the people around her grow,” Zuckerberg explained.
“I’m just super grateful for having had this opportunity to build this company and work so closely with Sheryl, and I feel like she’s leaving us in a great place having trained so many other awesome and talented people here,” Zuckerberg said.

“She’s not going that far because she’ll be on our board in the future.” So, in any case, it’s difficult to overstate the impact Sheryl has had on this place, he added.

Sandberg’s departure comes as Meta shifts its focus to hardware products and the “metaverse.”

The world’s largest social network, mired in controversy, is facing unprecedented uncertainty about its future amid the ongoing threat of regulatory scrutiny.

Who is Meta’s new Chief Operating Officer, Javier Olivan?

Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook-owned Meta Platforms Inc, is leaving the company after 14 years. Sandberg announced the move on Facebook “When I started this job in 2008, I hoped to stay for five years. After fourteen years, it is time for me to begin writing the next chapter of my life.”

 

Javier Olivan, the current Chief Growth Officer, will take her place.

Who exactly is Olivan?

Javier Olivan has been with Meta for over 14 years, leading teams responsible for the company’s various projects such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
According to Reuters, he has played an important, albeit unnoticed, role in Meta’s growth over the last 15 years.

Background:

Olivan worked at NTT and Siemens in Japan before joining Facebook in late 2007.

He grew up in the Pyrenees region of Spain and graduated from the University of Navarra with a degree in Electrical and Industrial engineering. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford.

Facebook journey:

When Olivan joined Facebook, the company was still in its early stages, with only about 40 million users. This figure has now risen to nearly 3.6 billion users, including Facebook, Instagram and other apps.

According to a 2010 VentureBeat interview, Javier was instrumental in Facebook’s expansion into countries such as India, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, and Brazil.

Currently employed:

He is currently the Chief Growth Officer of Meta, where he manages features and functions that span Facebook and its other applications such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

New position:

According to a post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Olivan will continue to lead infrastructure and development in his new role as COO (Chief Operating Officer). He would also be in charge of advertising and business products.
He will, however, continue to stay out of the spotlight.

“This will be a different role than Sheryl’s. Javi will take on a more traditional COO role, focusing on internal and operational issues, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous “according to Zuckerberg.

According to Brian Wieser, global head of business intelligence at ad agency GroupM, Olivan may have less autonomy now that Meta is a mature company with $118 billion in revenue than Sandberg did when she arrived in the company’s early years.