Feb 22, 2011 01:42 PM EDT by K. T. Bradford
Profile: Facebook Executive Bios
Sheryl Sandberg
COO, Facebook
When people think of Facebook, many think of Mark Zuckerberg or that Aaron Sorkin movie, but they should also take note of COO Sheryl Sandberg. The soaring success of the site required vision, but keeping the success going—and figuring out a way to monetize it and make a profit—took a skilled operations officer. That’s where Sandberg came in. In 2008 Zuckerberg hired her away from Google, where she built the AdWords and AdSense programs, and tasked her with making his social network a financial success. Since then she’s kicked Facebook revenue growth into high gear, instituting initiatives that leverage the data the network’s 500 million plus users share willingly every day. The result? Revenues were up approximately $400 to $500 million in 2009 over 2008, according to industry estimates. 2010 revenues are estimated to be as high as $2 billion.
And Sandberg isn’t done yet. Last year she told TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington that, even though Facebook is a nimble company, she’d like to see faster product generation and a shorter path from development to services and features that are ready for public consumption. So don’t look for Facebook or Sandberg to rest on their laurels any time soon.
Sandberg was one of the speakers at TEDWomen in December 2010, where she gave advice to women who want to stay in the workforce and reach the top of their chosen industries. Watch it below:
The Most Important Women in Mobile Tech
- Introduction
- Genevieve Bell – Intel Fellow
- Claire Boonstra – Co-founder of Layar
- Lisa Brewster – Developer relations administrator, HP-Palm
- Leah Buechley – Assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab, director of the High-Low Tech Group
- Shaherose Charania – CEO and co-founder, Women 2.0
- Danese Cooper – CTO, Wikimedia Foundation
- Weili Dai – Co-founder and COO, Marvell
- Mary N. Dillon – CEO, U.S. Cellular
- Mary Jo Foley – Technology journalist
- Mary Lou Jepsen – Founder and CEO, Pixel Qi
- Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud – Founder and CEO, Boston Power
- Marissa Mayer – Vice president of geographic and local services, Google
- Stormy Peters – Head of developer engagement, Mozilla
- Sheryl Sandberg – COO, Facebook
- Chris Shipley – Chairman and CEO, Guidewire Group
- Jane Silber – CEO, Canonical Ltd.
- Gina Trapani – Blogger, programmer, entrepreneur
- Cher Wang – Co-founder and chairwoman of HTC and VIA Technologies
- Padmasree Warrior – CTO, Cisco Systems
- Christy Wyatt – Corporate vice president of software applications and ecosystem, Motorola
February 22nd, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Many thanks for putting me on this list! I’m actually co-founder of Layar, the Augmented Reality platform and browser. SPRXmobile was our previous company and not active anymore.
Regarding the lack of women in tech and in leadership positions: please read reflections on the World Economic Forum in Davos – the last paragraph is on the big changes which are up ahead: lead by women!
http://site.layar.com/company/blog/layar%E2%80%99s-claire-boonstra-reflects-on-the-world-economic-forum-in-davos-moving-towards-the-new-reality/
It’s not a question of ‘if’ anymore; rather ‘how fast’ the change will happen. Modern leadership is feminine (or has a lot of typical feminin elements which also ‘real men’ can possess). Traditional companies and old fashioned leadership styles (driven by power and control) are bound to loose the game…
February 22nd, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I think the main reason why women aren’t assoicated with C level technology jobs is the fact that not many girls (at least at my school) ever go pass iPods/Phones and barely do anything more on a computer than iTunes/Facebook.
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Jo Harlow should be on this list. She is after all in charge of making Nokia’s smartphone partnership with Microsoft a success.
http://www.nokia.com/A4254075
http://press.nokia.com/2011/02/11/nokia-outlines-new-strategy-introduces-new-leadership-operational-structure/
To quote the link above:
Smart Devices will be responsible for building Nokia’s leadership in smartphones and will be led by Jo Harlow. The following sub-units now in Mobile Solutions will move under Smart Devices:
- Symbian Smartphones
- MeeGo Computers
- Strategic Business Operations
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Oops I missed the next sentence if that quote:
“To support the planned new partnership with Microsoft, Smart Devices will be responsible for creating a winning Windows Phone portfolio.”
February 23rd, 2011 at 8:41 am
@Techy: “not many girls (at least at my school) ever go pass iPods/Phones”
*past
Also, please watch the video on Sheryl Sandberg’s page. It will give you greater insight on the issue beyond what you’ve observed at school.
February 23rd, 2011 at 8:46 am
@Chris (not really):
This list was put together before the Nokia/Microsoft partnership. Beyond that, our (admittedly self-imposed) limit meant we left many awesome women off the list. We could easily have added 10 more and still had a strong pool to draw from.
February 23rd, 2011 at 11:11 pm
@K.T. Bradford No Carol Bartz? President and CEO of Yahoo? That’s a pretty important figure head in the role of feminine positions within the technology industry and just as much in the category of mobile tech. She also attended Obama’s recent tech dinner with all the other important technology figureheads of this era along with Marissa Mayer who also attended.
@Techy Actually at my college (United Kingdom, so high school to all you Americans) there are quie a few girls who do the same course I do which is called IT Practitioners and consists of software design/development, web design/development and computer systems/networks and they all seem to be just as good as the guys if not better than quite a lot of them so your just generalizing on a presumption and essentially a stereotype. How do you know they aren’t elite hackers, developers or budding and upstart online entrepreneurs when outside of school surroundings?
February 24th, 2011 at 11:17 am
@Daniel, we focused pretty heavily on the mobile field and felt that Yahoo and Carol Bartz didn’t fit as well given that restriction. But certainly a list of important women in tech in general would definitely include her.
February 25th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
@K. T. Bradford Fair enough, as I know Yahoo has been hovering around status quo for some time now and even declining in market share compared to that of their competitors such as Google and Bing as to why Bartz was brought in. Although I don’t think Yahoo has been sitting idle in the mobile tech field either as they have managed to concentrate on optimizing a lot of their sites and features for mobile platforms and devices with their mobile site and apps as I was wanting them to bring a mobile version of Yahoo Answers for ages and now I can finally access a quality mobile version of it. Bartz was also at Mobile World Congress last week to showcase Yahoo’s Livestand of their further development of mobile computing and optimization for mobile platforms and was also giving her vision of where mobile computing will go. Okay so they don’t have a device, OS or full retail product range out but it shows their actively doing something for mobile tech hence the reason why I personally thought she should have been included in your list. But any which way its good to see a growing female presence in this industry, although what I would like to see next is more tech figures from the black community emerging.
February 25th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
@Daniel, I completely agree on your last point. I wanted to include Xerox CEO Ursula Burns on this list, too, but again as far as mobile tech we felt that these women & their companies had a stronger presence. But I definitely made an effort to seek out women of color in the mobile field who were possible contenders, and will continue to do so.
March 1st, 2011 at 1:04 am
@K. T. Bradford Sorry I should enunciate myself. I meant I would like to see more tech figures from the black and other ethinic communities in general whether male or female (so outside of your list). Although it is good you tried making the effort for female names of colour you could compile to your list. The only reason I say this is because been black myself and a huge fan of technology there isn’t really anybody from the black community who comes to mind as a significant tech figure or role model in the technology industry in contrast to say if you mentioned Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Ballmer. It would just be nice to see to be honest.