The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message

Sheryl K. Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, sees herself as more than an executive at one of the hottest companies around — more, too, than someone who will soon rank among the few self-made billionaires who are women. She sees herself as a role model for women in business and technology.

In speeches, she often urges women to “keep your foot on the gas pedal,” and to aim high. Her call isn’t simply about mentoring and empowering. It is also about business strategy. A majority of Facebook’s 845 million users are women. And women are also its most engaged users. So Sandberg is playing to a powerful and lucrative demographic, as well as to the advertisers who want to reach it. Inside Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park (CA), she is considered a not-so-secret weapon for recruiting and retaining talented women as well as men. She and Mark Zuckerberg will need the best brains they can find to sustain Facebook’s astonishing growth.