Sheryl Sandberg announced that she is stepping down from her role as the chief operating officer at Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
Sandberg, who has worked for the company for the last 14 years, said she plans to focus her time on philanthropic work.
"When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life. I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women," she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg praised Sandberg in a Facebook post of his own and said she will continue to serve on the company's board of directors.
"It's unusual for a business partnership like ours to last so long. I think ours did because Sheryl is such an amazing person, leader, partner, and friend. She cares deeply about the people in her life and she is generous about nurturing relationships and helping you grow as a person. She has taught me so much and she has been there for many of the important moments in my life, both personally and professionally," he wrote.
Zuckerberg said that Javier Olivan will replace Sandberg as COO but noted the role will be slightly different.
"Javi will become our next Chief Operating Officer since he will now lead our integrated ads and business products in addition to continuing to lead our infrastructure, integrity, analytics, marketing, corporate development and growth teams. But this role will be different from what Sheryl has done. It will be a more traditional COO role where Javi will be focused internally and operationally, building on his strong track record of making our execution more efficient and rigorous," Zuckerberg explained.