Mark Zuckerberg's Business BFF

Despite the negative portrayal of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, the company itself is thriving. Much of the credit for Facebook’s surviving its period of hypergrowth—and privacy concern issues—is the relationship between Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer. Since the former Google exec joined Facebook two years ago, its work force has expanded to nearly 1,800, its global audience has multiplied by more than seven times, and revenue is expected to reach $1.6 billion this year. The Times has a profile this weekend on the unlikely friendship between the flip-flop-wearing Zuckerberg and the elegant COO. Many say a frat-like atmosphere permeated Facebook’s offices and Sandberg was hired to clean up shop. The two hold intimate, closed-door meetings twice a week to discuss Facebook and Zuckerberg’s life. “He is shy and introverted and he often does not seem very warm to people who don’t know him, but he is warm,” Sandberg said of Zuckerberg. “He really cares about the people who work here.” Zuckerberg concurs: “We can talk for 30 seconds and have more meaning be exchanged than in a lot of meetings that I have for an hour.”