In more than a few ways, Facebook (FB  ) Chief Operating Officer and Lean In founder Sheryl Sandberg has pioneered the way for women in the dynamic tech industry, building upon an impressive resume of corporate success. Graduated from Harvard and subsequently Harvard Business School in the spring of 1995, Sandberg worked under the then U.S Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers for five years on debt forgiveness in the developing world during the Asian financial crisis. Her first foray into Silicon Valley occurred afterwords in 2001 when she joined Google Inc (GOOGL  ) as the Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations from November 2001 to March 2008. Responsible for online sales of Google's advertising and publishing products as well as for sales operations of Google's consumer products and Google Book Search, Sandberg's impressive accomplishments attracted the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, who ultimately hired her away from Google to become Facebook's COO in 2008. At Facebook, Sandberg focused on turning Facebook into a profitable business, quickly achieving her goal by 2010. Currently she oversees business operations including sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy, and communications. 

As the first women to serve on Facebook's board Sheryl Sandberg has been an outspoken advocate for women's rights in the professional world. She is a board member of Women for Women International and authored the book Lean In in which she argues that systemic barriers exist in the workplace that prevent women from attaining leadership roles. Following her book, Sandberg founded a nonprofit organization by the same name in 2013 dedicated "to offering women the ongoing inspiration and support to help them achieve their goals." Pulling from much of her own experiences in the workplace, Sandberg's has sustained a dedicated focus on empowering women through community, education, and peer groups. Using her considerable platform, Sandberg offered a TED speech titled "Why we have too few women leaders" in which she argues that in order for change to happen women need to break down these societal and personal barriers by striving for and achieving leadership roles. Her admirable drive has lead to national campaigns such as #BanBossy, encouraging people to rethink the way the word 'bossy' is stigmatizing to young women; furthermore, she has developed significant partnerships through her Lean In foundation with organizations such as the Girl Scouts of America with the purpose of furthering the cause of women in the modern conception of corporate America. 

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In addition to Women for Women International, she serves on the board of the Walt Disney Company, the Center for Global Development, V-Day and SurveyMonkey. In 2012, she was named in the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world and as of June 2015, Sandberg is reported to be worth over $1 billion USD in the form of stock holdings in Facebook and other companies.