• Forbes, Tuesday, June 26, 2012 10:05 AM

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, has been named the first woman to the company’s board of directors. She joins CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Adreessen Horowitz’s Marc Andreessen, James Breyer of Accel Partners, Reed Hastings, the chairman and CEO, Netflix and Founder’s Fund Peter Thiel, among others.

“Given the pressure that’s been on Facebook to increase diversity on its board, Sandberg’s appointment does not come as a total surprise to the tech community,” Forbes writes. “Women are a significant minority among those employed in technology jobs.” Although women comprise 48% of the U.S. workforce, they hold only 24% of science, engineering, technology, and math positions, according to government statistics cited by Forbes. 

“While Sandberg’s appointment is certainly positive news, it does cast a light on the continued gender imbalance on the boards of some of Silicon Valley’s most popular and influential firms.” By one count, Apple, Groupon and LinkedIn have one woman-board member each, while Adobe Systems, Pandora, Zillow, Zynga and Splunk are all without any.

Read the whole story at Forbes »