The Adult: Sheryl Sandberg

The Adult: Sheryl Sandberg

facebook.com

Since Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard University, the social networking giant has been dominated by a freewheeling culture of young, mostly male computer engineers. That all changed in April when the company hired former Google executive Sandberg to become Facebook's chief operating officer. Sandberg, 38, was brought in to provide some adult supervision and help Silicon Valley's hottest startup to grow up—and make oodles of money. If anyone can figure out how to capitalize on Web 2.0, it's Sandberg. As vice-president of global online sales and operations at Google, she oversaw huge growth in its international operations and managed its lucrative advertising business. As COO, Sandberg will be responsible for helping Facebook scale its operations and build its business model.