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Sheryl Sandberg Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated September 14, 2026 • 6 min read

Quick Info

Date of birth28 August 1969

Age54 Years

BirthplaceWashington, D.C.

ProfessionBusiness Executive, Chief Operating Officer at Meta (formerly Facebook)

NationalityAmerican

Marital statusMarried

SpouseTom Bernthal

FamilyFive children (two biological children from marriage to Dave Goldberg; three stepchildren from Tom Bernthal)

Net worth$1.5 billion (2022 estimate by Forbes)

Sheryl Sandberg Biography

Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American business executive, former chief operating officer of Meta (Facebook) and a philanthropist. She rose through roles at a

Early life and background

Sheryl Kara Sandberg was born on August 28, 1969, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in a Jewish family that moved to North Miami Beach, Florida when she was a toddler. Her parents, Joel and Adele Sandberg, were active in efforts to support Soviet Jews, and the family home and community activity exposed her to public advocacy from a young age. Sandberg attended Highland Oaks Middle School and North Miami Beach High School, graduating in 1987 near the top of her class.

Sandberg went on to study at Harvard University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1991, graduating summa cum laude and elected to Phi Beta Kappa. While at Harvard she founded Women in Economics and Government, an initiative to encourage more women to major in economics and government. An early mentor was economist Lawrence Summers, who supervised her undergraduate work and later recruited her to work at the World Bank.

Career

After college Sandberg spent two years at the World Bank, working on health projects in India that addressed issues such as leprosy, AIDS, and blindness in remote regions. She returned to Harvard for graduate study and shifted from law to business, earning an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1995 with highest distinction after receiving a fellowship following her first year.

Her early professional experience included a stint at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles. She then returned to Washington, D.C., to work for Lawrence Summers when he moved into senior roles in government. Sandberg later transitioned to the private sector, holding positions that included vice president of global online sales and operations at Google.

In 2008 Sandberg joined Facebook (now Meta) as chief operating officer, a role she held until 2022. During her time at the company she helped scale operations and served on Meta’s board of directors. In 2022 she stepped down as COO and was succeeded by Javier Olivan.

Public profile

Sandberg’s public profile has combined executive leadership with philanthropy and occasional political engagement. She has been described in media coverage with notable epithets tied to her role at Facebook and has been publicly involved in discussions about technology, business leadership and social issues.

Her time at Facebook/Meta drew intense scrutiny during several high-profile controversies. The company’s handling of foreign influence operations that targeted the 2016 U.S. election, the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and the broader debate about platform responsibility following the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were all events that prompted public and governmental attention. Reporting during those years examined decisions by Facebook leadership, including Sandberg, and the company’s interactions with regulators, investigators and the media.

Sandberg also faced media reports and internal review at Meta related to whether corporate resources were used in connection with personal matters. Reporting in 2022 described an internal review into the use of company resources in relation to some of her activities.

Personal life

Sandberg has been married multiple times. She was married to Brian Kraff in the early 1990s and later to Dave Goldberg, with whom she had two children: a son born in 2005 and a daughter born in 2007. Dave Goldberg died in 2015. In 2022 Sandberg married Tom Bernthal, who has three children from a previous marriage, and the blended family includes five children in total.

Her parents pursued professions in medicine and education. Her father, Joel Sandberg, is an ophthalmologist; her mother, Adele Sandberg, worked as a teacher and later taught English as a second language. Sandberg is the oldest of three siblings and has a brother who is a pediatric neurosurgeon and a sister in pediatrics.

Latest updates

As of 2022 Sandberg had left her role as chief operating officer at Meta. Reporting that year also detailed ongoing scrutiny of leadership decisions at the company and the settlement of legal matters related to earlier data-privacy controversies. Public coverage has continued to track Sandberg’s involvement in business, philanthropy and public conversations about technology and governance.
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Recent Work

Chief Operating Officer, Meta (Facebook)

Served as COO from 2008 until 2022 and remained on the company's board of directors; succeeded by Javier Olivan.

2008-2022
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Career Highlights

  1. Chief Operating Officer at Meta (Facebook) from 2008 to 2022
  2. Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google
  3. Worked as an economist at the World Bank and as a consultant at McKinsey & Company
  4. MBA from Harvard Business School with highest distinction; BA in economics from Harvard University, summa cum laude
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Net Worth

$1.5 billion (as per Forbes her real-time net worth in 2022)

Figures are editorial estimates based on publicly available reporting and may change as new information emerges.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When was Sheryl Sandberg born?

28 August 1969

What is Sheryl Sandberg known for?

Business Executive, Chief Operating Officer at Meta (formerly Facebook)

What is Sheryl Sandberg’s marital status?

Married

Who is Sheryl Sandberg married to?

Tom Bernthal

What is Sheryl Sandberg’s net worth?

$1.5 billion (2022 estimate by Forbes)