As the COO at the helm of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg juggles the tasks of monetizing the world’s largest social networking site while keeping its users happy and engaged.

Why you should listen

Long before Sheryl Sandberg left Google to join Facebook as its Chief Operating Officer in 2008, she was a fan. Today she manages Facebook’s sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy and communications. It’s a massive job, but one well suited to Sandberg, who not only built and managed Google’s successful online sales and operations program but also served as an economist for the World Bank and Chief of Staff at the US Treasury Department. Sandberg’s experience navigating the complex and socially sensitive world of international economics has proven useful as she and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg work to strike a balance between helping Facebook users control privacy while finding ways to monetize its most valuable asset: data.

At TEDWomen in 2010 Sandberg made the bold decision to talk about the experience of being one of very few women at the C-level of business. She noted that many women, in anticipating having a family, "lean back" from leading at work. After her TED Talk took off, Sandberg wrote the book Lean In, which has spent nearly a year on the New York Times Bestseller list. Sandberg plans to release a version of the book for graduates.

What others say

“Whether you call it “scaling the company” or “managing hypergrowth,” Sandberg is one of the few executives on earth with a demonstrated knack for it. It’s clear why Zuckerberg, in particular, needed her.” — Vogue, May 2010

Sheryl Sandberg’s TED talks

More news and ideas from Sheryl Sandberg

Ideas

What’s the definition of feminism? 12 talks that explain it to you

December 24, 2017

Earlier this month, Merriam-Webster announced that 2017’s word of the year is feminism. Searches for the word on the dictionary website spiked throughout the year, beginning in January around the Women’s March, again after Kellyanne Conway said in an interview that she didn’t consider herself a feminist, and during some of feminism’s many pop culture […]

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TEDWomen

5 talks for Women’s Equality Day

August 26, 2016

Today marks the 45th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day, which was designated in 1971 to celebrate the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1920. In commemoration of that milestone, and the miles we still have to go, here are five TEDTalks from past TEDWomen conferences about the state of […]

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