Other qualities that point the way to greatness and success include not only talent but also intelligence, wisdom, organizational skills, strong business acumen, and a deep concern for others. All of these and more are qualities of Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg.
She is an American technology leader, activist, and author; one of the most influential women and phenomenal entrepreneurs in the world. Time named her in the 2012 list of the 100 most influential women and in 2013, the Jerusalem Post ranked her eighth among the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
Sheryl Sandberg Biography
Sheryl was born on August 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C., and was given the name Sheryl Kara Sandberg. She is the oldest of three children (Sheryl, Michelle, and David) born of her parents. Her nationality is American and her ethnicity is Ashkenazi-Jewish.
Early Life and Education
When she was 2 years old, her family moved to North Miami Beach, Florida, where she attended North Miami Beach High School. In high school, she was always top of the class, and it was not surprising that she graduated ninth with a grade point average of 4.646. Sheryl had quite an extensive portfolio during her time in high school:
- Class president, second grade.
- A member of the National Honor Society
- A member of the executive committee of the upper class
- An aerobics instructor
She enrolled at Harvard College in 1987 and graduated summa cum laude Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1991. As is her custom, she graduated at the top of her class and received the John H. Williams Award for the best graduate in Economics.
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While at Harvard, she co-founded an organization called Women in Economics and Government. Later she met then Professor Larry Summers, who became her mentor and advisor for her dissertation. She became Larry’s research assistant at the World Bank for almost a year and worked on health projects in India. Among the health campaigners, she worked with were leprosy, AIDS, and blindness.
Sheryl enrolled at Harvard Business School in 1993 and received a scholarship within the first year. By 1995 she had completed her MBA with the highest distinction.
Sheryl Sandberg Career
Sheryl Sandberg began her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She then worked for Lawrence Summers, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, as Chief of Staff during Bill Clinton’s term from 1996 to 2001.
She later joined Google in November 2001 as Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations. During her time at Google, she managed the online sales of Google’s an advertising and publishing products. Her skills were also utilized in the operation of Google’s consumer products and Google Book Search.
During this time, which spanned 7 years, she was involved in the creation of Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.
According to Google, she joined Facebook in March 2008 after an unofficial meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a Christmas party. She was given the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook, a position that was not needed but which she was given because of her outstanding qualities and past performance.
Before she came into the system, the company was more interested in building an impressive website. However, she shifted the focus to making a profit by providing input and ideas that generated numerous profits.
She became the first woman to serve on Facebook’s board of directors after being elected as the eighth member by existing board members in June 2012.
Other Leadership Positions
Your leadership roles are not limited to Facebook. The phenomenal woman is on the board of directors of companies like the Walt Disney Company and Starbucks Corp (2009 to 2012). She also serves on a number of non-profit boards, including Women for Women International, Centre for Global Development, and V-Day.
From 2006 to 2008, Sheryl served as a director of eHealth, Inc. and has been a director of SurveyMonkey since July 2015.
Books and Women Initiatives
The COO of Facebook has always been interested in women, ever since her college days when she co-founded the organization Women in Economics and Government. She is strongly committed to increasing the number of women in leadership positions.
She encourages women to reach out and not to hold back. Work hard, stick with what they like and never let go, while reminding them that they are great. Sheryl Sandberg is considered an inspiration for women who want to create a successful balance between the demands of motherhood and a challenging career.
She published the book Lean In Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and in 2013 she founded Leanin.org (also known as the Lean In Foundation). The Foundation’s mission is to continuously inspire and support women to achieve their goals. In 2014 it sponsored the controversial “Ban Bossy” campaign.
Her second book, co-authored with psychologist and friend Adam Grant, was published in April 2017 and is entitled Option B: Overcoming Adversity, Building Resistance, and Finding Joy. The book is about the grief of finding her husband dead in a hotel gym and the torments of the time after that.
Sheryl Sandberg Family, Husband, Children
Sheryl was born into the Jewish family of Adele (née Einhorn), a college French teacher, and Joel Sandberg, an eye doctor.
Her parents were active participants in the fight for the right of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Isreal. The couple took their children to demonstrations for Jewish rights. Their father is one of a number of activists in the American Jewish community who led the fight for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate.
Sheryl married her first husband, Brian Kraff, in 1993 at the age of 24, but divorced him a year later in 1994. Brian is the founder of Market Hardware, Inc. and is also known as the founder and CEO of eStudentLoan.com.
Ten years after her divorce, she went back on the marriage path when she married Dave Goldberg in 2004. Dave was an executive at Yahoo! at the time of their marriage, but later became CEO of SurveyMonkey.
On May 1, 2015, while the duo was vacationing in Mexico, something very unfortunate happened. That was the day her loving husband died. His death was attributed to a head injury he sustained when he fell off a treadmill, but which later turned out to be the result of a heart rhythm disorder.
She said that although things will never be the same again, the world was better for the years he lived. She described their union as 11 joyful years of the deepest love, happiest marriage, and truest partnership she could imagine.
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Sheryl remembered the experiences she had had in her marriage. She said she was deeply understood, truly supported, complete, and loved above all else. What a great man her husband was.
The couple has two amazing children, a son (born 2005) and a daughter (born 2007). She lives in Menlo Park, California.
Sheryl Sandberg’s Salary, Net Worth
Sheryl Sandberg holds shares of Facebook and other well-known companies and has accumulated a net worth of over $1 billion. As a board member of Starbucks, her annual salary was $280,000.
In 2017, she was worth $1.58 billion and ranked seventh on the Forbes Power Women list and 14th on Forbes America’s Self-Made Women list. Her net worth is increasing and was $1.61 billion in January 2018.
