Meta veteran Sheryl Sandberg to depart board after 12 years

The news: Meta's former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg will step down from the tech giant's board when her term expires in May, she announced in a Facebook post. She will stay on as an adviser.

The numbers: Sandberg has spent more than 14 years as Meta's chief operating officer and 12 on its board since March 2008. She stepped down from the operations role in September 2022.

The context: Sandberg was once founder Mark Zuckerberg's second-in-command, Reuters reports, and has been a staunch proponent and defender of Facebook's business model, including the collection and sale of personal data to third parties. Sandberg has also lauded Meta's ability to detect hate speech and misinformation on its social media platforms, despite being a source of public and regulator scrutiny for the tech giant.

What they said: "The Meta business is strong and well-positioned for the future, so this feels like the right time to step away," Sandberg said in the Facebook post.