Sheryl Sandberg – Author Biography
Early Life
Sheryl Sandberg was born on August 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C., and raised in North Miami Beach, Florida. She graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1991 with a B.A. in economics, then earned an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School in 1995. Early in her career she served as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and helped build Google’s advertising business as vice president of global online sales and operations.
Career
In 2008 Sandberg joined Facebook as chief operating officer, becoming one of the most powerful executives in technology and the architect of the company’s advertising-driven business model. She used her platform to advocate for women in leadership. Her 2010 TED talk on why so few women reach the top led to Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013), a bestselling manifesto urging women to pursue ambition assertively. After the sudden death of her husband, SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, in 2015, she wrote Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy (2017, with psychologist Adam Grant), about grief and recovery. She stepped down as Meta’s COO in 2022 and left its board in 2024.
Major Works
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013) and Option B (2017). She also founded the Lean In Foundation (now LeanIn.Org) to support women’s professional development.
Writing Style and Themes
Sandberg writes candid, anecdote-driven business memoir: personal stories from the C-suite blended with research on gender, leadership, and resilience. Lean In‘s message — “sit at the table,” “don’t leave before you leave” — sparked a global conversation about women’s ambition. Option B pivots to vulnerability, arguing that resilience is a muscle built through community and small steps forward. Her themes are ambition, gender equity, grief, and recovery.
Legacy
Sandberg is one of the most influential business leaders of the 21st century, and “lean in” entered the cultural vocabulary as shorthand for women’s workplace ambition. Lean In was both celebrated and critiqued — praised for starting a conversation, challenged for speaking mainly to privileged women — but its impact on corporate diversity debates is undeniable.
