“Sandberg, with her extensive global network and roots in Washington, is clearly more sensitive to such matters. She’s in touch with advertisers, customers, investor groups, and other women leaders in a way that her boss is not. She understands the power of role models, both inside and outside the company. She knows about the pressure to put more women on boards, whether through Norway-style quotas, EU targets, or moves by treasurers in such states as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania that make it easier for pension funds to push for more women directors to be appointed. She has also served on several public boards, from Starbucks (SBUX) to Walt Disney (DIS). If the first thing Sandberg ever heard Zuckerberg say was how she had “really good skin,” as former Facebook staffer Katherine Losse recounts in her new book, The Boy Kings: A Journey Into the Heart of the Social Network, it’s probably a safe bet that she suspected the burden of thinking about how to govern a 21st century company would fall largely on her.”