Sheryl Sandberg

In January 2025, a Delaware judge sanctioned Sandberg for allegedly deleting emails from a personal account despite being instructed to preserve them during 2018 shareholder lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. Meta later settled the investor lawsuit for over $5 billion in FTC fines.

In July 2024, Sandberg publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, praising her as 'an accomplished leader, a fierce advocate of abortion rights, and the strongest candidate to lead our country forward.'

In October 2022, Sandberg donated $3 million to support ACLU's advocacy fighting abortion bans nationwide following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The donation supports work in courts, legislatures, and ballot measures over three years.

Announced departure from Meta COO role in mid-2022, following multiple controversies that dogged the company including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Myanmar ethnic cleansing, and pandemic misinformation. Fully left Meta employment in September 2022, though remained on board until May 2024.

In January 2021, Sandberg stated the Capitol attack was 'largely organized on platforms that don't have our abilities to stop hate,' deflecting responsibility from Facebook. Democratic lawmakers criticized this as inadequate and called for her resignation, noting Facebook's role in enabling the insurrection.

In 2019, Sandberg donated $1.3 million to Planned Parenthood to support its healthcare clinics across the country, demonstrating long-standing commitment to reproductive healthcare access.

In 2018, it was revealed that Facebook hired Definers Public Affairs, a Republican opposition-research firm, to discredit critics and competitors. The firm circulated research linking anti-Facebook activists to George Soros, with anti-Semitic undertones. Sandberg initially denied knowledge of Definers but later admitted the firm's work was 'incorporated into materials' presented to her and referenced in emails she received. Reporting by the New York Times and BuzzFeed revealed Sandberg was directly involved, having sent an email asking if Soros had shorted Facebook's stock after his public criticism of the company.

In September 2018 Congressional testimony, Sandberg called Facebook's role in Myanmar genocide 'devastating' and admitted the company failed to take down posts inciting violence. UN later called it a genocide. Internal accounts reveal content moderation was painfully slow, relying on a single Dublin-based moderator for Myanmar.

In April 2018 interview, Sandberg took personal responsibility for Facebook's failure to verify that Cambridge Analytica had deleted 87 million users' data when first notified in 2016. Acknowledged Facebook made mistakes and should have acted two and a half years earlier.

In January 2018, Sandberg asked Facebook communications staff to investigate George Soros's finances days after he criticized Facebook at the World Economic Forum. Facebook hired Definers Public Affairs to push stories painting the anti-Facebook movement as a Soros-backed effort, despite Soros being the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Beginning in 2015, LeanIn.Org partnered with McKinsey & Company to produce the annual Women in the Workplace study, the largest comprehensive study of the state of women in corporate America. The inaugural study examined more than 118 companies and 30,000 employees. The study has become a key reference for corporate gender equity policy, documenting persistent gaps in representation, pay, and promotion for women, particularly women of color, and has been published annually since 2015.

Sheryl Sandberg and her late husband Dave Goldberg signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Through the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, she has donated over $286 million to causes including women's empowerment, grief resilience, education, and food security. Major gifts include approximately $200 million in SurveyMonkey stock donated to the foundation in 2018, $98 million in Facebook stock to her donor-advised fund in 2017 for disadvantaged women and girls, and $50 million to her donor-advised fund for charitable purposes.

In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg published 'Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead' and launched the Lean In Foundation (LeanIn.Org) to support women in the workplace through community building, education, and peer support circles. The foundation has grown to include over 2 million members and 43,000 Lean In Circles in 172 countries, partnered with Girl Scouts on the 'Ban Bossy' campaign, and launched Equal Pay Day initiatives. In 2023, Sandberg expanded the foundation's work by launching a girls' leadership program for ages 11-15.