Yonsei Women Leadership Development Lecturer: Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook On July 3, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook, delivered a lecture on “Women’s Work and Life” at Yonsei. Sandberg was ranked #5 in 2011 on Forbes list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”; and in 2012, she was named in Time magazine’s “Time 100,” an annual listing of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World.” In March of this year, Ms. Sandberg published her first book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, which examines the difficulties women continue to face in achieving leadership roles, while suggesting commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. Sandberg, who graduated with honors from the Department of Economics at Harvard University in 1991 and earned her MBA with highest distinction at Harvard in 1995, has served as the COO of Facebook since 2008. Her salary in 2012, which was about 26 million US dollars (29 billion KRW), generated a great deal of discussion, as it was 13 times higher than that of Chairman and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Sandberg could be a strong U.S. presidential candidate in the near future. In the lecture, Ms. Sandberg argued that many women tend to pull back when professional opportunities present themselves; instead, she insisted, these are the critical moments when women ought to “lean in.” She encouraged women to boldly approach professional meetings and to embrace challenges with a positive attitude. As a mother of two children, she also emphasized the fact that those businesses which take the demands of parenting into serious consideration are generally the ones that generate higher profits and achieve greater results. Ultimately, Ms. Sandberg encouraged her young audience, especially its female members, to work hard and meet challenges with the will and courage to lead, for these are the most effective means of creating further and better opportunities for career advancement.