Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, one of the youngest billionaires ever

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, one of the youngest billionaires ever

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Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, speaks at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi / Getty Images for Fortune)

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Sheryl Sandberg, second from left, was among executives from leading tech companies meeting with President Obama to discuss progress with the HealthCare.gov website. (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)

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Sheryl Sandberg, who has worked at both Google and Facebook, wrote “Lean In,” which focuses on working women. (Alfred A. Knopf / Associated Press)

By Stacey Leasca

Jan. 22, 2014 12:57 PM PT

Sheryl Sandberg, at the age of 44, just became one of the youngest billionaires ever.

Sandberg, the chief operating officer at Facebook, owns an estimated 12.3 million shares in the world’s most popular social networking website, shares that closed at $58.51 per share Jan. 20, making her stake in the company valued at a cool $750 million.

Add that to the $300 million in stock that Sandberg has sold since Facebook’s initial public offering in 2012 and she is sitting pretty at just over $1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Never mind the money she has made in book royalties for “Lean In,” speaker fees and more.

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In 2010 on TED, Sandberg talked about women in the workforce: “Women are not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world.” The new billionaire is a notable exception. In 2012, she became the first woman on Facebook’s board of directors. Before that, she was at Google, vice president of global online sales and operations, and in the late 1990s served as chief of staff to then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers under President Clinton.

Where could Sandberg go from Facebook? David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect,” told Bloomberg he wouldn’t be surprised if she ran for political office. After Google and Facebook and writing a book, “she’ll know when to run for political office, and probably win that office.”

What about Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg? Don’t worry, he’s doing just fine. According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg sold more than $2 billion in stock last month, and has donated an additional $1 billion to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. He added an estimated $12.4 billion to his personal net worth in 2013.

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Twitter: @sleasca

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