Sheryl Sandberg shoots down rumors of a role in Clinton administration

Rumors have swirled for months that if Hillary Clinton succeeds in her bid to become the next U.S. president, she would appoint Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg as Treasury Secretary.

But Sandberg shot down those rumors today at the Virtuous Circle conference, hosted by the Internet Association.

“I’m staying at Facebook,” Sandberg said when asked during a fireside chat if she would serve as the next Treasury Secretary or Commerce Secretary. When pressed by moderator Cecilia Kang of The New York Times, Sandberg insisted, “I really am staying at Facebook. I’m very happy.”

Sandberg got her start during Bill Clinton’s administration, when she served as chief of staff to then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Sandberg left D.C. to work at Google before joining Facebook in 2008. Given her history at the Treasury Department, the speculation that she might snag the appointment makes sense.

Sandberg has also maintained a close relationship with Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign. She gave Clinton her endorsement in July, and WikiLeaks released emails this morning from Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, that showed Sandberg met with Clinton last year to go over “research on gender and leadership by women.”

Although Sandberg said she wouldn’t consider a role in government, she told the audience at Virtuous Circle that she cares about policy issues. “I think the issues we’re here to talk about, the issues around policy, matter. So government matters. I don’t have a job in the private sector thinking government doesn’t matter; it does. And the issues that bring this community together are: what is the policy framework that allows companies like The Honest Company to start so few years ago and scale the way they have,” Sandberg said, giving a nod to her co-panelist, Jessica Alba of The Honest Company.