Sheryl Sandberg’s advertising empire leaves a complicated legacy

In recent years, Sandberg’s public image was tarnished alongside the mounting criticisms against Facebook, where she was widely seen as a powerful No. 2 executive. — AFP

Sheryl Sandberg once remarked that she felt she was put on earth to scale organisations – and during her career as one of the most powerful executives in Silicon Valley, she plowed straight toward that grandiose vision.

As an advertising head at Google in the mid-2000s, and as chief operating officer at Facebook for 14 years until her resignation Wednesday, Sandberg oversaw a period during which the Internet services ballooned to colossal sizes, fed by a seemingly endless fountain of advertising revenue.