Sheryl Sandberg fast-tracked a recent college grad to become CEO of her feminist nonprofit Lean In — and veteran staffers are heading for the exits, according to a report.
Bridget Griswold — a former Meta product manager who entered the workforce just three years ago — rose from a newly hired AI and product director to chief executive in a matter of weeks, despite having no traditional nonprofit leadership experience, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sandberg highlighted the abrupt transition in a LinkedIn post this week, posing alongside Griswold and revealing that the newcomer had joined the foundation just two months earlier before being tapped to lead both Lean In and its parent organization — a move her organization said reflected Griswold’s focus on using artificial intelligence to “help women harness the power of AI to further their careers.”
“Bridget is the right leader with the right set of skills who can make that happen,” read the post on Lean In’s official LinkedIn page.
But inside the organization, the reaction was far less enthusiastic.
More than a dozen employees — roughly a quarter of the foundation’s staff — have departed over the past year through layoffs and resignations, with Griswold’s rapid promotion and lack of nonprofit experience cited by insiders as a key factor driving the exodus, the Journal reported.
Two of the nonprofit’s five highest-paid executives — each earning more than $290,000 — have left in the past year, according to tax filings and LinkedIn profiles reviewed by the Journal.
Sandberg has taken a more hands-on role at the foundation after leaving Meta, with people familiar with the matter saying she grew concerned the organization was “drifting” despite growth in its global network and partnerships.
The billionaire is now pushing for a sharper approach as cultural attitudes shift toward more traditional gender roles.
The Post has sought comment from Lean In and Griswold.
Griswold quickly emerged as Sandberg’s handpicked protégé who was tapped to inject a Silicon Valley-style product mindset into the nonprofit best known for its corporate feminism playbook.
After graduating from Brown University, Griswold cut her teeth at Meta, where she worked in the company’s competitive rotational product manager program and on Instagram-focused initiatives, building experience in consumer tech and artificial intelligence.
She joined Lean In earlier this year as director of AI and product — a role focused on scaling digital tools and integrating emerging tech — before being vaulted into the top job within weeks, with Sandberg citing her “deep understanding” of technology and her push to help women “lead the AI revolution.”
Lean In’s leadership shakeup comes as the organization pivots toward confronting the rise of so-called “tradwives” — a viral social media trend that romanticizes women embracing traditional roles as full-time homemakers and deferring to their husbands.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Sandberg warned that the movement — which has racked up hundreds of millions of views online — is repackaging “a tired concept” that risks pressuring women to abandon careers and return to outdated gender norms.
“The problem with the romanticized vision of the tradwife is that it signals to women that to be a good wife, partner, or mother, you have to do it full-time,” Sandberg wrote, adding that the trend threatens to reintroduce the “guilt that many of us have worked long and hard to shed.”
She argued that the shift comes at a precarious moment, pointing to data showing younger men increasingly embracing more traditional views of marriage, and urged women to resist what she described as “outdated expectations” about their roles at home and at work.
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