Naomi Gleit is the product manager at Meta, formerly Facebook. She was previously the company’s vice president of social good, growth, engagement, and identity.
She is Meta’s second-longest-serving employee after CEO Mark Zuckerberg, having worked there from July 18, 2005 to the present.
Naomi Gleit Biography
Gleit was born in New York City to an Asian-American mother and a Jewish father. Her mother was a “tiger mom” who drove her to ballet, piano, karate, and Chinese lessons.
Her father was an immigration lawyer by profession, and she attended Hebrew school as a child. Gleit has spoken openly about how her identity as a half-Asian, half-Jewish woman has influenced her life.
At Stanford University, Gleit majored in Science, Technology, and Society. For her senior thesis, she examined how Facebook defeated the competing social networking service Club Nexus (the creator of Club Nexus would later go on to create Orkut).
Naomi Gleit’s Career
Gleit has worked at Meta for her entire career. She applied for a job at Facebook after researching the company for her senior thesis and believing strongly in its potential.
On July 18, 2005, her birthday, she started working as a marketing associate and assisting with administrative responsibilities. She joined the company not long after it reached a million customers. Through her work, Gleit expanded the reach of Facebook beyond colleges and into high schools, paving the way for its eventual expansion to all users.
Gleit agreed when Zuckerberg asked her to work as a product manager for the growth team in 2007. Chamath Palihapitiya served as the team’s leader. Gleit told Newsweek in 2009 that her job wasn’t complete until “literally everyone in the world is on the site.”
As a result of people using social media to connect with friends and family in the wake of the 2011 Thoku earthquake and tsunami, Gleit was a member of the team that developed and released Facebook Safety Check in 2014.
Gleit later explained this initiative’s larger context to Fast Company, saying, “[Zuckerberg] wants us to apply this data-driven, product-driven approach to other problems because it’s not unique, per se, to growth.”
As of 2017, Gleit continued to be in charge of Facebook Safety Check.
On September 27, 2015, Gleit made the announcement that Facebook was establishing a team focused on social good at the Social Good Summit in New York City. Vice President for Social Good was the new position title for Gleit.
Under Gleit’s direction, Facebook rolled out support for fundraisers in 2016 and 2017. This included nonprofits raising money for themselves as well as individuals organizing fundraisers for charitable causes and personal causes.
Gleit oversaw Facebook’s efforts to collaborate with other organizations working for social good, such as Chimehack, a joint venture between Gucci and Global Citizen.
Gleit later rose to the position of head of product at Facebook, which had changed its name to Meta in 2021.
Gleit sits on the board of The Primary School in East Palo Alto, which provides education for kids and their families.
