BEIJING, March
5 (Xinhuanet) -- Facebook Inc., the second most-popular social-networking Web
site, said on Tuesday that it has hired Google veteran Sheryl Sandberg as its
operating chief.
Sandberg, 38, joined Google in 2001 and served as
vice president of global online sales and operations.
She built and managed the Google's blockbuster online
advertising programs, AdWords and AdSense, which accounted for 99
percent of its 16.6 billion U.S. dollars revenues in 2007.
Sandberg said Google has managed to maintain a
culture of openness, creativity and innovation. "As companies get big, they get
bureaucratic and stifle innovation," she said. Google, she noted, proves that
big companies "can still be bold and be creative."
Facebook was founded in 2004 as a social site for
students at Harvard University and spread quickly to other colleges and
eventually into workplaces. Its popularity stems from how the site conveniently
allows users to share details of their lives with selected friends online.
Facebook said that Sandberg will be responsible for
helping Facebook expand its operations and its presence globally.
In her new role, Sandberg will manage sales,
marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, privacy issues
and communications and will report directly to Facebook Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg, the company said.
The departure of Sandberg marks one of the first
senior executives at the Web search leader to leave since its sensational
initial public offering in August 2004.
(Agencies)
