Sheryl Sandberg, 42, Facebook’s highest-paid executive, holding 1.9 m shares in the social network is on course to becoming one of the wealthiest women in the world. The savvy business women joined Facebook from Google in 2008, after meeting Mark Zuckerberg at a Christmas party and then at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She has since transformed Facebook from an impressive social experiment into a robust and focused business.
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In its S-1 filing, she is credited with “growing revenue, building commercial and developer relationships” and is the only person apart from Mr Zuckerberg to be named as “key personnel”, with the power to significantly impact Facebook by leaving.
She certainly makes her mark as she represents the business. The married mother of two combines energy with slick presentation skills, pacing conference stages without ever consulting a note, fluffling a line or revealing more than she means to.
This glossy front is underpinned be weighty academic credentials. She has a BA in Economics and an MBA with the highest distinction, both from Harvard University where she caught the attention of Professor Larry Summers, her then tutor who supervised her in a thesis on the role of economics in spousal abuse.
In 1991, when Mr Summers became chief economist at the World Bank, he hired Ms Sandberg as a researcher. Then, after a stint as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, Mr Summers became US Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, and named Ms Sandberg as his chief of staff.
She joined Google when the Democrats lost the 2000 presidential election, where she spent six years as vice-president of global online sales and operations.
It proved a perfect training ground. As with Facebook, Ms Sandberg helped to evolve the web search giant from a relatively young business with potential into one making serious money, and with a solid roadmap for growth.
It also means she knows Google inside out, and arrived well-versed in privacy issues, which will equip her well for her next battles.
The Telegraph contributed to this report.
