The New York Times profiles Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. Formally of Google, Sheryl Sandberg may be Mark Zuckerberg’s only Facebook friend:
Despite their obvious differences — or maybe because of them — Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg have grown close. “A lot of people choose to hire people who look exactly like them,” Mr. Zuckerberg says. “Here we just value balance a lot more. It takes work to build those relationships, but if it does work, you end up with a much better system.” Mr. Zuckerberg met Ms. Sandberg at a Christmas party in 2007, and they immediately took a liking to each other. What followed was an intense, six-week business courtship, during which the two dined together multiple times a week. Because both of them are Silicon Valley celebrities, they typically ate at Ms. Sandberg’s house so they could keep their talks confidential. “We were very methodical and thoughtful about the relationship,” says Ms. Sandberg. For his part, Mr. Zuckerberg, ever the tech geek, describes their interactions as “high-bandwidth.” – from NYTimes