Hey all,
Thanks again for subscribing to this newsletter. It’s a bit of an experiment for me as I take content I prepare for DTNS and adapt it for you to read here. I'm continuing the idea of doing regular roundup of smaller stories that don’t justify their own single post. Free subscribers this week get the first story and paid subscribers get the full roundup as a bonus and thank you. Let me know what you think.
In this issue:
- Sheryl Sandberg leaves Meta
- How tech restrictions are hitting Russian businesses
- Volvo partners with Epic's Unreal Engine (Newsletter exclusive)
- Using ocean temperature to generate power
- Robo-umpires rise to AAA baseball
- Microsoft mitigation and verified identity
Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Meta - What She Leaves Behind
Wednesday Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg posted on Facebook that after 14 years with the company, she will step down from her role but remain on Meta's board. She says she wants to focus on philanthropic work. And while she denied they played a part in her decision, Sandberg will avoid having to deal with declining ad revenues or and FTC antitrust lawsuit.
No One can Replace Sheryl
Meta's Chief Growth Officer, Javier Olivan will take over as COO in the autumn. He has been with the company for 15 years and assumed the CGO title 5 months ago.
However Olivan's role will not be identical to Sandberg's CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "I don’t plan to replace Sheryl’s role in our existing structure. I’m not sure that would be possible since she’s a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way." He said that Olivan will take over integrated ads and business products while continuing to run infrastructure, integrity, analytics, marketing, corporate development and growth.
As far as the broader reorganization, Zuckerberg mentioned integrating business and product. Right now business and ops are separate from product.
Who is Javi?
Olivan is an electrical engineer and Stanford business school graduate who led the international expansion of Facebook from 2007-2011. 91% of its monthly users now come from outside the US and Canada. In 2013 he started working on Internet.org, Facebook's effort to bring free internet, and boost Facebook usage abroad. BY 2015 it had connected 7 million users who were not previously online. He led the push for Facebook to acquire WhatsApp in 2014.
He has a much lower profile. CNBC points out that Sandberg has 900,000 followers on Instagram. Olivan has 17, and his profile is private. Before Wednesday, last posted publicly to Facebook in 2018.
Who Else Will Fill In The Gap?
Andrew Bosworth, aka Boz, was once Sandberg's partner in Facebook's Ad business and now leads the met averse-related efforts. Expect Boz to take up some of the public-facing aspects of Sandberg's role. And Sandberg noted Meta's president of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg is leading the effort to promote Meta's safety efforts, especially regarding the metaverse.
NOTES on SHERYL SANDBERG
1996- 2001 Worked for US Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers, assisting on debt forgiveness related to the Asian financial crisis.
2001: Joined Google in advertising business
2013: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
2015: Husband died of cardiac arrhythmia