Why Facebook Needs Sheryl Sandberg

(page 6 of 6)

Three people familiar with these internal deliberations say that Sandberg and Zuckerberg fundamentally disagree on the issue. Zuckerberg believes that Facebook can be an agent of change in China, as it has been in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. Sandberg, a veteran of Google's expensive misadventures in the world's most populous country, is wary about the compromises Facebook would have to make to do business there.

Sandberg won't address whether there's friction over the topic, but she says disagreements in her partnership with Zuckerberg are common and healthy, and that the CEO gets to make the final call. For his part, Zuckerberg insists that he is taking the long view and that nothing is settled. "We have a pretty long-term perspective on this," he says. "Given our track record so far, I have confidence that we have a good shot at winning whenever it makes sense for us to enter. But we need to figure out what that is going to look like."

If and when Facebook does go to China, it will likely find itself censoring free speech and filtering out sensitive political content on behalf of the Chinese government. What if, for example, a Chinese user opens a page dedicated to outlawed sect Falun Gong? Or the Chinese government asks the social network to divulge the private messages of a democratic activist?

"Everyone would agree it's a minefield," says Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard Law professor and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "It's a minefield not only from potentially a public-relations and branding point of view, but because I don't think they would want to end up in a place that had them doing something they would regret."


Beyond Facebook, the other social network that Sheryl Sandberg has been fervently scaling is her own. Every few weeks a few dozen Silicon Valley women—doctors, teachers, and techies—head to the seven-bedroom Atherton (Calif.) mansion Sandberg shares with her husband, Dave Goldberg, chief executive of Web startup SurveyMonkey, and their two kids. The group sits on foldout chairs in the living room and holds plates of catered food on their laps as they listen to a guest speaker. Over the years, Sandberg has lured such luminaries as Geena Davis, Billie Jean King, Rupert Murdoch, Meg Whitman, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Robert Rubin, the most recent guest, said that 15 years ago when he was Treasury Secretary, it was good for Sheryl Sandberg that she knew him. Now, he quipped, it was good for him that he knows her.

These "Women in Silicon Valley" events, as Sandberg calls them, have become a mainstay in the lives of the women in her personal and professional circle. "I think there are a lot of people who feel they are very good friends with Sheryl, and that's a testament to how much she invests in those relationships," says Marne Levine, a former colleague at Treasury who joined Facebook last year in Washington as its vice-president of global public policy.

Last year a guest speaker at one of Sandberg's home soirees was Cambodian human trafficking activist Somaly Mam. After she discussed her work and shared her personal history of being sold into slavery at a young age, Sandberg stood up and announced her intention to hold a fundraiser for the Somaly Mam Foundation and asked how many of her friends would join her. Everyone volunteered. The fundraiser, held at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, Calif., in November, raised more than a million dollars for the foundation, a third of the organization's annual contributions.

The ease with which Sandberg marshals such support has friends and admirers constantly wondering what comes after Facebook. Sandberg's recent barnstorming hasn't dampened that speculation. In December she gave a speech at a conference called TEDWomen in Washington—TED talks are de rigueur for any tech star—and spoke about the small compromises women make that limit their career advancement. The presentation has since been viewed nearly 100,000 times on YouTube. Last month, Sandberg delivered a speech on leadership to the U.S. Naval Academy as part of its annual Foreign Affairs Conference. She silenced the mostly male crowd by telling the women in the audience to find partners who will support their careers. Then she brought them to their feet with a rousing paean to inspirational leadership—and by putting on a midshipman's jacket.

So…governor? Senator? Will she or won't she return to Washington? Sandberg's impeccably political response: She's happy friending Mark Zuckerberg for as long as they're changing the world. Her husband believes she will stay at Facebook for a long time. "It's well beyond an 18-month time horizon," says Goldberg. "My guess is if she had to [predict her future], she has a real desire to improve the lives, particularly of women, but also the lives of people in the developing world."

Only Lant Pritchett, one of her former professors at Harvard and a longtime friend, doesn't hold back. "I always had the impression that she was going to run the world. I think she can be President of the United States," he says. "One time my wife said, 'There are so many things that you want to be envious about and hate about her. And you just can't.' "

With Douglas MacMillan. Stone is a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek.