Who Is Ticket Zuckerberg’s New No. 2? It’s a Trick Ask.

For greater than a decade, Ticket Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg began and ended every week by assembly collectively.

The symbolism of the ritual was clear. It was supposed to stamp that Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief govt of Meta, and Ms. Sandberg, the chief working officer, have been in lock step with each diverse on the head of the company.

However when Ms. Sandberg, 52, said on Wednesday that she would step down from Meta this tumble, she crystallized an unspoken change on the tech big: Mr. Zuckerberg now no longer has any clear No. 2.

Whereas Mr. Zuckerberg named Javier Olivan, a longtime govt, to choose over Ms. Sandberg’s job when she departs, the importance of the chief working officer characteristic has diminished at Meta, which was previously recognized as Fb. Mr. Zuckerberg, 38, as a change has 4 executives who preserve equally big

duties and who reply to and bustle main selections by him.

Mr. Zuckerberg made the structural shift because of he desired to consolidate his preserve watch over over all fingers of the company, three people terminate to him said. Whereas Mr. Zuckerberg has steadily been the undisputed boss, with a majority of the company’s balloting shares, he shared vitality with Ms. Sandberg when he was a youthful businessman and necessary again increasing the company. However with greater than 18 years of journey beneath his belt, he must train all of his vitality and be recognized further clearly as Meta’s sole chief, the folks said.

The 4 excessive lieutenants are Andrew Bosworth, the chief know-how officer; Gash Clegg, the president of world affairs; Chris Cox, the chief product officer; and Mr. Olivan, who was the top of inform, Mr. Zuckerberg said in a Fb message about Ms. Sandberg’s exit on Wednesday.

Every of the 4 males has main duties. Mr. Clegg is the ultimate public face and ambassador for Meta, whereas Mr. Bosworth is pushing the company into the immersive world of the so-called metaverse. Mr. Cox oversees Meta’s household of apps — Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Fb — and Mr. Olivan shall be guilty of analytics, infrastructure and inform.

However none of them preserve as extraordinary vitality as Ms. Sandberg veteran to, when she successfully ran the entire change operations whereas Mr. Zuckerberg centered on rising Fb’s merchandise.

Mr. Zuckerberg alluded to the vitality shift on Wednesday in his Fb put up. He said he didn’t “realizing to alter Sheryl’s characteristic in our current setting up,” together with that Meta “has reached the aim the place it is sensible for our product and change teams to be further fastidiously built-in, as a change of getting the entire change and operations capabilities organized one after the other from our merchandise.”

R.A. Farrokhnia, a professor at Columbia’s Business and Engineering Schools, said the shift in administration setting up made sense as Meta invested throughout the metaverse and moved away from the social networking mannequin that Ms. Sandberg constructed an selling change for and championed for years.

“Transferring on this route requires a further decentralized — and further extinct — governance setting up,” Mr. Farrokhnia said. “That you just wish to moreover preserve acquired a pair of people coming collectively the place the sum of the components turns into extraordinary elevated.”

A spokesman for Meta declined to commentary and declined to current interviews with executives.

For years, Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg had uncomplicated duties, which workers frequently referred to as a result of the “Sandberg facet” and “Ticket facet.” Ms. Sandberg ran the change, coverage and supreme teams with a choice of autonomy, whereas Mr. Zuckerberg was chargeable for the engineering and product teams.

That began altering in 2020 after Fb handled scandals thrilling privateness, misinformation and diverse poisonous bid materials on the platform. Mr. Zuckerberg instructed his teams that he was achieved apologizing and desired to focus additional time and consideration on progressive merchandise that the company was designing.

Since then, Mr. Zuckerberg has assumed further preserve watch over over public messaging and coverage selections, which Ms. Sandberg veteran to deal with. He additionally launched in hires with public coverage journey and promoted longtime executives who have been proper to his imaginative and prescient.

Three executives he promoted have been Mr. Bosworth and Mr. Cox, who have been on the company for 16 years, and Mr. Olivan, who joined nearly 15 years in the past. They have been amongst Mr. Zuckerberg’s earliest recruits, and have been instrumental in setting up the earliest variations of Fb.

Mr. Olivan, 44, who’s recognized internally as Javi, joined Fb as head of world inform and rose step-by-step all through the ranks. He’s hardly ever at all times a household title however oversaw Fb’s rapidly enlargement and was fastidiously sharp with inserting ahead the company’s technical infrastructure.

Mr. Bosworth, 40, is considered as an enthusiastic and from time to time brash cheerleader for Mr. Zuckerberg’s imaginative and prescient. In January, he was promoted to be the subsequent chief know-how officer. He oversees the digital and augmented actuality labs, which fabricate merchandise identical to the Quest digital actuality headsets which may possibly presumably be on the coronary coronary heart of Mr. Zuckerberg’s push for the metaverse. He and Mr. Zuckerberg are additionally terminate friends who creep collectively.

Mr. Cox, 39, who grew to transform chief product officer in 2005, has frequently been described by workers as a result of the coronary coronary heart of the company. He left Fb in March 2019 however returned in June 2020, prompting speculation that Mr. Zuckerberg may possibly moreover have been signaling him as a successor.

All through Mr. Cox’s absence, a few of his teams have been reassigned to account on to Mr. Zuckerberg or diverse executives, said two senior Meta workers who preserve labored with Mr. Cox since his return. They said he had no longer assumed the vogue of tangible characteristic he as quickly as had with lots of of engineers reporting to him.

Mr. Clegg, 55, joined the company in 2018 after a occupation in British politics, together with a stint as deputy excessive minister. Ms. Sandberg employed him to choose over dealing with Fb’s thorny political problems globally, a job that was as quickly as hers. Over time, he has transform a type of de facto head of suppose for the company, dealing with world governments and advocating for Meta at a regulatory stage. In February, he was promoted to president of world affairs, reporting to Mr. Zuckerberg.

At Meta, insiders preserve lengthy speculated over who a doable successor to Mr. Zuckerberg could be, must straightforward he ever go away. Ms. Sandberg’s impending departure has now shortened that checklist and left no clear options.

“Through the years, few of us diverse than Sheryl preserve emerged as a doable successor to Ticket,” said Katie Harbath, a director of public coverage at Meta who left the company final yr. “It is sensible for Ticket to wish selections for conceivable successors.”

She added: “It should most likely perchance even be dangerous to best focus on one particular person.”