- Marne Levine is the Chief Commercial Officer of Meta (formerly Facebook).
- She told a virtual classroom that she initially didn’t want to work there when she first met in 2010.
- She described how she realized other areas where she “will add value immediately.”
- For more stories, please visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
When considering moving to a new industry, people should be “open and imaginative,” Meta’s chief commercial officer said when describing her initial reluctance to join the tech giant.
In 2010, when Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer of Facebook and former Meta, contacted her and hoped to work there, Marne Levine’s career took her from the government. To the academic world, then to the financial services industry.
On Tuesday, in a virtual conversation with Insider at Case Western Reserve University, Levine said that she was not initially interested because she “never thought” that she would manage policies for a company. “This is not on the road map,” she added.
She said that after her husband called her a “very lazy thinker,” Levin “leaves and learns,” and then discussed the role in more depth with Sandberg.
“In the process of transformation, I found that I understand the government and policies, so I can immediately add value in many ways. I did not do this for a high-growth technology company, and I did not” have not developed this way before An organization,” Levine said.
“I will learn something at work, and there are other areas where I will add value immediately,” she continued.
Later that year, she accepted an offer to serve as Facebook’s vice president of global public policy.
In 2014, Levine became the chief operating officer of Instagram, and then returned to Facebook in 2018 as its vice president of global partners, business and corporate development. In June, she was appointed as Facebook’s chief commercial officer, and the company was renamed Meta in October.
Levine told the audience, “Openness and imagination are important, because many of these jobs didn’t exist before, and you are dealing with new cutting-edge problems, and no one has the answer.”
Levine first met Sandberg when she joined the Treasury Department after graduating from college.
After working in the Treasury Department for many years, she went from being the chief of staff to Harvard University President Larry Summers, to obtaining an MBA from Harvard University, to becoming a product manager for a financial services company.
When she was invited to work for Facebook, she was working at the National Economic Council, which was “still very new” at the time.
“I have a certain enthusiasm and interest, but if I were to describe my career, I would say it was a purposeful twist. And it was definitely not premeditated,” Levine said.
Levine added that after 10 years at Meta, she loves the diversity of her work. She said this makes it “very challenging, interesting and interesting.”
“There is no fixed script for how to do this,” Levine said, “so I have to think all day and all the time, which makes it interesting.”
