SAN FRANCISCO • Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg is taking a seat on the board of SurveyMonkey, the online polling company that was run by her late husband Dave Goldberg.

SurveyMonkey, a privately held company valued at US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion), also appointed to its board Mr David Ebersman, the chief executive of behavioural health firm Lyra Health and former chief financial officer of Facebook.

Mr Ebersman shepherded Facebook through its 2012 initial public offering.

The new appointments were reflected in an update to the website of the California-based company on Monday.

The board is conducting a search for a new chief executive officer to succeed Mr Goldberg, who died in a treadmill accident while on vacation with his wife in Mexico in May.

President Barack Obama led tributes for the one-time music executive, who joined SurveyMonkey as its chief executive in 2009.

In a statement, Ms Sandberg said she had watched Mr Goldberg and his team fulfil "their mission to help people make better decisions" and that she looked forward to helping "realise Dave's vision of building a lasting company that will impact the way we all do business for years to come".

In a Facebook post last month about mourning, Ms Sandberg wrote: "Starting the transition back to work has been a saviour, a chance to feel useful and connected." Ms Sandberg is the second-largest shareholder in SurveyMonkey after Tiger Global Management, whose partner Lee Fixel is also a SurveyMonkey board member. Other backers include Google and Spectrum Equity.

REUTERS