June 3, 2022: -Sheryl Sandberg will step down from her role as Chief Operating Officer at Meta, formerly known as Facebook.

Sandberg joined the company in the year 2008 as the No. 2 to Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and was a big hand in turning Facebook into an advertising juggernaut and the most influential company in the technology industry over the years, with a market cap that was more than $1 trillion.

The chief growth officer of the company, Javier Olivian, will take over as COO. Sandberg will continue to serve on Meta’s board of directors.

“Over the upcoming few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports,” Sandberg said in a huge Facebook post discussing stepping down. Zuckerberg stated that meta is also planning an internal reorganization to go along with the difference.

“I don’t plan to replace Sheryl’s apart in our existing structure. I’m not sure that would be possible since she’s a superstar who defined the COO role uniquely,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

“Even if it were possible, I think Meta has been in a point where it makes sense for the product and business groups to be more closely integrated, instead of having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products,” he added.

Meta has come under fire in the latest years for its huge influence, its lack of success in stopping the spread of misinformation and harmful material, and its one-time rivals such as Instagram and WhatsApp. The company faces an antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission and could see scrutiny from different agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission after a whistleblower filed a complaint about its efforts to combat hate on its platform.

 Zuckerberg and different execs have been forced to testify before Congress multiple times in the previous three years, although Sandberg has primarily escaped that spotlight.

Sandberg said that stepping down would allow her to focus more on her philanthropic work.

Before Facebook, Sandberg served in the Treasury Department of the Clinton administration, then joined Google in 2001 and helped grow its advertising business.