The woman who asked Facebook to investigate Soros will exit Meta’s board of directors،
After 12 years, Sheryl Sandberg is set to leave her position on Meta's board of directors. Her term ends in May and she won't be running again (via Reuters).
“The Meta business is strong and well positioned for the future, so now is the right time to exit,” Sandberg said in a Facebook post, adding that she would serve as an advisor to the company. Mark Zuckerberg responded to his promise and said he looked forward to “a new chapter together.”
In addition to his 12 years on Meta's board of directors, Sandberg served as the company's chief operating officer for a total of 14 years. She resigned from that position in 2022. Once founder Zuckerberg's second-in-command, Sandberg was one of the company's most visible executives and the lead architect of its often criticized advertising-based business model, the report said. .
Prior to his Meta role, Sandberg worked at Google and, before that, served as chief of staff at the United States Department of the Treasury under Bill Clinton. She has been a staunch defender of Facebook during numerous controversies and public relations crises.
This was the case in 2018, when The New York Times reported that Sandberg asked Facebook staff to look into George Soros' financial interests linked to the social network. It all started when Soros gave a speech at the World Economic Forum and called Facebook and Google a “threat,” adding that they had caused “a whole host of problems that we are only now beginning to realize.”
It's completely normal to have an opinion on any subject, but when you're a billionaire and your words can potentially stimulate the markets, things are a little more complicated. Sandberg therefore wanted to know if Soros had anything to gain financially by publicly criticizing the tech giants. At issue was a potential short sale of Facebook's stock – long story short (pun intended), this is when you bet against a company and make money when its stock price falls. And you see the conflict of interest if you can move the markets with a single speech…
