Rich Self-Made Women: Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook, the social media behemoth, author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which examines the inequality of women's voices in leadership roles, the causes, and provides common sense solutions, and founder of LeanIn.org, the Lean In Foundation ("Sheryl Sandberg"). Sandberg was elected to the Facebook board of directors in 2012, the first women to do so. Prior to signing on with Facebook, Sandberg was Google’s Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations and contributed to the development of Google.org, the company’s charity component (Guynn). Prior to her VP position at Google, Sandberg was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers’ chief of staff.

Sandberg was born in Washington, D.C., the oldest of her siblings ("Sheryl Sandberg"). Her father, Joel Sandberg, is an ophthalmologist and her mother Adele Sandberg taught French in college (Auletta). Adele also taught English as a second language, then established Ear Peace: Save Your Hearing Foundation, dedicated to preventing teen hearing loss. Sandberg’s family moved to North Miami Beach, Florida, after being expelled from the USSR. An excellent student Sheryl excelled in her school work and graduated from North Miami Beach High School with a 4.6 GPA (“Sheryl Sandberg”).

Sandberg entered Harvard in 1987, and began studying economics under Lawrence Summers, her mentor and thesis adviser, and soon to be boss ("Sheryl Sandberg"). Through the study of economics, she began to understand the relationship between financial inequality and domestic abuse. While at Harvard, she founded Women in Economics and Government, to encourage more women to take part in the study of economics and government. In 1991, Sandberg graduated summa cum laude, earning her B.A. in economics ("Sheryl Sandberg"). She was awarded the John H. Williams Prize, given to students who graduate at the top of the class in economics. Prior to attending Harvard for her M.B.A. and winning a fellowship the first year, Sandberg worked with Larry Summers, now the chief economist at the World Bank, as his research assistant, working on such health issues, like AIDS, leprosy and blindness in India. In 1995, Sandberg earned her M.B.A. with honors ("Sheryl Sandberg").

After graduate school, Sandberg worked at McKinsey & Company, as a management consultant until 1996 (Guynn). Her path crossed with Larry Summers again, when he became Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Sandberg joined Summers in the federal government, becoming his chief of staff. She remained in this role as Summers became Secretary of the Treasury, throughout his term which ended in 2001.

The Republicans took over Washington in 2000, and in 2001 Sandberg moved to Silicon Valley, taking a position at Google, as Vice President, and remained there until 2008 (Guynn). While at Google, Sandberg was in charge of developing AdWords and AdSense ("Sheryl Sandberg: American”). It has been noted that prior to Sandberg’s arrival, Google did not have a business component yet. AdWords is the Google offering that places text ads on the pages that result from user searches. AdSense is the Google offering that places targeted ads on sites that sign up as participants. At the time, the pair offerings brought Google to profitability and represented a large portion of their earnings. In addition to AdWords and AdSense, Sandberg was responsible for Google consumer offerings and Google Book Search ("Sheryl Sandberg"). Her reputation as one of the preeminent executives nationwide was evolving after her exception professional successes ("Sheryl Sandberg").

Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook, met Sandberg at a party hosted by Dan Rosensweig, during the Christmas season in 2007 (Guynn). Rosensweig, President and CEO of Chegg, was a partner in Quadrangle Group in Silicon Valley at that time. During this period, Sandberg was giving thought to The Washington Post Company, as her next executive coup. Zuckerberg had not been looking for a chief operating officer, but upon meeting Sandberg, fortuitously felt that she had all of the qualities necessary to serve at Facebook. Their discussion continued as they travelled to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in January 2008. That March, Facebook publically disclosed that they were hiring Sandberg from Google as their COO (Guynn). 

Sandberg’s role included overseeing Facebook’s sales and marketing, human resources, business development, communications and public policy ("Facebook Names Sheryl Sandberg”). Though once she arrived at Facebook, her total focus was on how to make the company profitable. Like Google, they had not achieved profitability yet, but were simply a great social media site. Sandberg convinced the top brass at Facebook to let discrete business advertising be their golden ticket. Sandberg brought Facebook to profitability by 2010 (Auletta).

According to those who follow these things, Sandberg’s 2011 compensation package included approximately $300,000 annual salary along with $30,491,613 Facebook shares (Wasserman). Sandberg’s Securities and Exchange Commission Form 3, which discloses an officer’s insider transactions regarding ownership of a company’s securities, showed Sandberg owned 38,122,000 in stock options and restricted stock units at the time. In 2012, these shares were valued at $1.45 billion and if she retained ongoing employment with the company, would be fully vested by 2022. In the same year, Sandberg became the first woman member of Facebook’s board. Business Insider, a business and technology news organization, disclosed that close to 34 million shares had already vested, representing $790,000,000. Some were withheld for tax advantage considerations. In 2013, it was reported that Sandberg had sold 2.4 million shares, at an estimated value of $91 million, approximately only five percent of her total holdings in the company. It was later disclosed that Sandberg sold approximately fifty persent of her Facebook shares from the time of the IPO (Kurtzleben). In the end, she retained nearly 17.2 million shares, worth approximately $1 billion. 

Participation on Outside Boards

Sandberg served as director of eHealth, Inc., from 2006 through 2008 ("Sheryl Sandburg Director Since 2010"). In 2009 through 2012, she was a director on the board of Starbucks, earning an annual salary of $280,000. In 2010, she became director of The Walt Disney Company, with a compensation package around $243,863. Sand berg also served as director for the Brookings Institution and the Ad Council ("Sheryl K. Sandberg"). She was also a director on nonprofits Women for Women International, and V-Day boards.

Recently, there has been speculation that The Walt Disney Company director might become the replacement for departing Disney CEO Bob Iger, who is leaving the company in 2018 (Zarya). But Facebook’s golden girl has shuttered rumors that she wants to be the next Disney CEO, on June 1st, Sandberg said, “I don’t want another job,” and that seems like that. She added that she enjoys working at Facebook because she gets to work with her best friends, on matters that are important to her (White). Disney has been aggressively looking for an Iger replacement, since his expected successor, Thomas Staggs, the company’s COO, left unexpectedly (Zarya).

Sandberg attended the opening of the Shanghai Disneyland Resort in China, the first of its kind there (Sandberg). The Disney castle had a unique Chinese-esque aesthetic. Sandberg reminisced that she grew up near Walt Disney World in Florida, which opened up when she was 3 years old. She spoke to the magical timelessness of Disney and its universal nature. She posed with Mickey Mouse, who was wearing some rad gold shoes - kind of big, though. 

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg published her first book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Sandberg 2). The book is a call to action about the lack of female leadership in business, government and industry. Oprah described it as, “Honest and brave . . . The new manifesto for women in the workplace” (Sandberg 2). Sandberg deep dives into the issues surrounding why the advancement of women in leadership has stalled, using hard data and detailed research. The book has been a best seller on the New York Times and Amazon Bestseller lists (Swisher), and has sold well over 2.25 million copies worldwide since its first publication (Palmer). A special edition, specifically for students, came out in 2014, called Lean In For Graduates. Her Lean In Foundation, at LeanIn.org, is a testament to the impact that Sandberg’s book has had on women. The websites asks women to sign up and either start or join a Lean In Circle. The circles are peer group meetings that are located in companies, colleges, military branches, urban and rural towns and cities around the world. The circles can be in-person or can be online, but the key is the conversations that are occurring as a result of them. Women are feeling empowered because they have someone to talk to that understands their plight. Today, LeanIn.org has more than 21,000 Circles in countries all over the world.

The book, and Sandberg herself, have garnered much criticism (Palmer). Essentially, the argument is ‘what does a rich billionaire white women, who attended Harvard University, and has lived a privileged life, understand about the plight of everyday women?’ But the response to her book, and the immense participation of those in the Lean In Circles she has established, beg to differ. She has created a revolution that will certainly have an impact on the workplace of the future. Some women may be ready now, some women may be ready soon, some women may be ready in the future, but the conversation has begun in earnest, women know where to go to have the conversation and, now women have a blueprint for what they can do to change their life and the lives of those around them. But women are not the only ones participating. Men have joined Lean In Circles, as well. Those men who care about women, and believe that they can at least support their fellow sisters as they progress on their journey, have become encouraging participants. Indeed, men who can actually change the path of many women have joined, too. Dulling the cacophonic dissonance of the critics, Lean In is catching on fire and has indeed become a manifesto for change in the workplace.

In the book Sandberg addresses the barriers to success that remain obstacles to women’s advancement, including overt and insidious sexism, discrimination and sexual harassment (Sandberg 2). But she also raises the point that many women have incorporated their own limitations, creating their own glass ceilings, and many do not realize it.

Sheryl Sandberg is an amazing example of a successful self-made woman and anyone who attempts to follow her lead, will most certainly be farther along in arriving at their destination than had they not.

Works Cited

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Guynn, Jessica. "Facebook lures Google's Sandberg as COO." Baltimore Sun. 5 March 2008. Web. 15 August 2016. <http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-03-05/business/0803050002_1_facebook-google-sandberg>.

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Palmer, Gianna. "What impact has Lean In had on women?" BBC News . BBC. 5 March 2015. Web. 13 August 2016. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31727796>.

Sandberg, Sheryl. "Shanghai Disneyland." Facebook. 14 June 2016. Web. 15 August 2016. <https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/10156961145365177>.

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"Sheryl Sandburg Director Since 2010." The Walt Disney Company. n. d. Web. 13 August 2016. <https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/leaders/sheryl-sandberg/>.

Swisher, Kara. "Leaning In to No. 1: Sheryl Sandberg’s Book Tops Both NYT and Amazon Bestseller Lists." All Things D. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 25 March 2013. Web. 15 August 2016. <http://allthingsd.com/20130325/leaning-in-to-no-1-sheryl-sandbergs-book-tops-both-nyt-and-amazon-bestseller-lists/>.

Wasserman, Todd. "Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011." Mashable. 1 February 2012. Web. 15 August 2016. <http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/facebook-compensation/#UYSdzPzTTPqr>.

White, William. "Facebook Inc’s Sheryl Sandberg Shoots Down Walt Disney Co CEO Buzz." Investor Place. 2 June 2016. Web. 15 August 2016. <http://investorplace.com/2016/06/facebook-sheryl-sandberg-disney-ceo-fb-dis/#.V7KFlTU1YZE>.

Zarya, Valentina. "Sheryl Sandberg Says She Doesn't Want to Be Disney's Next CEO." Fortune. Time, Inc. 2 June 2016. Web. 15 August 2016. <http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/sheryl-sandberg-disney-ceo/>.