Sheryl Sandberg intended to spend just five years at Facebook when she joined in 2008 as Mark Zuckerberg’s right-hand woman. Instead, she stayed 14 years, becoming one of the most recognisable, and polarising figures, in Silicon Valley.
When she steps down as chief operating officer of Facebook, now known as Meta, this autumn, she will leave behind a mixed legacy. On the one hand, she has built an image as a seasoned executive and female role model who helped grow a $538bn company by supercharging its digital advertising machine.
But Sandberg has also become a lightning rod for criticism, accused of attempting to brush controversies over moderation and privacy under the rug, as Facebook lurched from scandal to scandal after the 2016 US election.