Who Is Mark Zuckerberg’s New No. 2? It’s a Trick Question.
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For additional than a decade, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg began and finished each and every week by meeting alongside one another.
The symbolism of the ritual was apparent. It was meant to sign that Mr. Zuckerberg, the main govt of Meta, and Ms. Sandberg, the main functioning officer, were in lock phase with every other at the prime of the corporation.
But when Ms. Sandberg, 52, explained on Wednesday that she would action down from Meta this slide, she crystallized an unspoken change at the tech huge: Mr. Zuckerberg no lengthier has any distinct No. 2.
When Mr. Zuckerberg named Javier Olivan, a longtime executive, to choose in excess of Ms. Sandberg’s job when she departs, the value of the main operating officer position has diminished at Meta, which was previously known as Fb. Mr. Zuckerberg, 38, in its place has four executives who have similarly huge responsibilities and who answer to and run significant choices by him.
Mr. Zuckerberg created the structural shift simply because he preferred to consolidate his control more than all arms of the corporation, three men and women near to him reported. Though Mr. Zuckerberg has usually been the undisputed manager, with a the greater part of the company’s voting shares, he shared ability with Ms. Sandberg when he was a younger businessman and required assistance increasing the firm. But with much more than 18 decades of working experience beneath his belt, he wants to work out all of his electrical power and be discovered far more clearly as Meta’s sole leader, the people stated.
The 4 top lieutenants are Andrew Bosworth, the main engineering officer Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs Chris Cox, the main products officer and Mr. Olivan, who was the head of growth, Mr. Zuckerberg mentioned in a Facebook concept about Ms. Sandberg’s exit on Wednesday.
Every of the 4 males has big obligations. Mr. Clegg is the public face and ambassador for Meta, when Mr. Bosworth is pushing the company into the immersive globe of the so-referred to as metaverse. Mr. Cox oversees Meta’s loved ones of apps — Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Fb — and Mr. Olivan will be in cost of analytics, infrastructure and expansion.
But none of them have as a lot ability as Ms. Sandberg used to, when she effectively ran all of the company operations though Mr. Zuckerberg focused on acquiring Facebook’s products and solutions.
Mr. Zuckerberg alluded to the power shift on Wednesday in his Facebook article. He mentioned he did not “plan to swap Sheryl’s function in our existing structure,” introducing that Meta “has reached the place where it makes feeling for our product or service and organization teams to be much more carefully integrated, somewhat than having all the business enterprise and operations capabilities structured individually from our solutions.”
R.A. Farrokhnia, a professor at Columbia’s Enterprise and Engineering Schools, said the change in administration structure produced feeling as Meta invested in the metaverse and moved absent from the social networking product that Ms. Sandberg constructed an promotion organization for and championed for several years.
“Moving in this route necessitates a far more decentralized — and far more standard — governance composition,” Mr. Farrokhnia explained. “You have numerous individuals coming together wherever the sum of the areas will become a great deal more substantial.”
A spokesman for Meta declined to remark and declined to deliver interviews with executives.
For several years, Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg experienced distinct-slash tasks, which workers often referred to as the “Sandberg side” and “Mark facet.” Ms. Sandberg ran the organization, policy and lawful teams with a whole lot of autonomy, though Mr. Zuckerberg was responsible for the engineering and solution groups.
That began changing in 2020 immediately after Facebook dealt with scandals involving privacy, misinformation and other toxic material on the platform. Mr. Zuckerberg advised his teams that he was carried out apologizing and needed to concentration a lot more time and interest on impressive items that the company was developing.
Considering that then, Mr. Zuckerberg has assumed extra handle over general public messaging and policy conclusions, which Ms. Sandberg used to take care of. He also brought in hires with public policy expertise and promoted longtime executives who had been faithful to his eyesight.
Three executives he promoted were being Mr. Bosworth and Mr. Cox, who have been at the company for 16 a long time, and Mr. Olivan, who joined practically 15 years ago. They had been among Mr. Zuckerberg’s earliest recruits, and were being instrumental in making the earliest variations of Facebook.
Mr. Olivan, 44, who is recognized internally as Javi, joined Facebook as head of intercontinental growth and rose steadily by way of the ranks. He is not a family identify but oversaw Facebook’s immediate enlargement and was closely involved with keeping the company’s complex infrastructure.
Mr. Bosworth, 40, is witnessed as an enthusiastic and from time to time brash cheerleader for Mr. Zuckerberg’s vision. In January, he was promoted to be the next chief technologies officer. He oversees the virtual and augmented actuality labs, which make products like the Quest digital truth headsets that are at the heart of Mr. Zuckerberg’s thrust for the metaverse. He and Mr. Zuckerberg are also near mates who holiday vacation alongside one another.
Mr. Cox, 39, who became main solution officer in 2005, has generally been described by personnel as the heart of the organization. He remaining Facebook in March 2019 but returned in June 2020, prompting speculation that Mr. Zuckerberg could have been signaling him as a successor.
For the duration of Mr. Cox’s absence, some of his teams have been reassigned to report right to Mr. Zuckerberg or other executives, mentioned two senior Meta workers who have worked with Mr. Cox given that his return. They stated he experienced not assumed the sort of expansive part he the moment had with thousands of engineers reporting to him.
Mr. Clegg, 55, joined the corporation in 2018 following a job in British politics, together with a stint as deputy prime minister. Ms. Sandberg hired him to choose above handling Facebook’s thorny political issues globally, a task that was at the time hers. More than time, he has grow to be a variety of de facto head of point out for the company, working with entire world governments and advocating for Meta at a regulatory level. In February, he was promoted to president of world affairs, reporting to Mr. Zuckerberg.
At Meta, insiders have very long speculated over who a opportunity successor to Mr. Zuckerberg would be, really should he at any time depart. Ms. Sandberg’s impending departure has now shortened that listing and remaining no distinct responses.
“Over the several years, several folks other than Sheryl have emerged as a potential successor to Mark,” mentioned Katie Harbath, a director of general public coverage at Meta who still left the enterprise last calendar year. “It makes feeling for Mark to want options for feasible successors.”
She added: “It can be risky to only concentration on just one particular person.”
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