Susan Li became the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Meta Platforms, Inc. in November 2022. This was a big step forward in her amazing career and made her one of the youngest CFOs of a major public company at age 36. Her rise to this important role at the tech giant, which used to be called Facebook, shows that she is good with money, has a strategic vision, and can handle difficult problems in a digital world that is always changing. This article looks at Susan Li’s path, what she did for Meta, and how she has shaped the tech industry as a leader.
Susan Li was born in Chengdu, China, and moved to the United States with her family when she was two years old. They settled in Oregon. Li was a smart kid; her intellectual curiosity and drive were clear from a young age. She started high school when she was 11 and went to Stanford University when she was 15. By 2005, she had earned two Bachelor’s degrees, one in Economics and the other in Mathematical and Computational Sciences. Her parents always believed in her potential and stressed the importance of hard work. This shaped her strong work ethic, which would be a key part of her success.
Li’s early academic successes were helped by a school system that understood she needed more difficult work to keep her moving forward quickly. This background in both the arts and sciences gave her a unique mix of analytical rigor and creative problem-solving that would be very useful in her future jobs.
From 2005 to 2008, Susan Li worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. This was the start of her professional life. She was much younger than her peers when she started at 19, which she said was both humbling and life-changing. Her youth was brought to light on her first day on Morgan Stanley’s trading floor, which made her “mortified” but determined to prove herself. Li learned the importance of being curious and working hard from Michael Grimes, a well-known head of technology investment banking. She carried these lessons with her throughout her career.
Li joined Facebook in 2008. At the time, it was a new social media site with only 400 employees and not as popular as MySpace. She joined the finance team because she was drawn to the company’s lively energy and growth potential. Her main tasks were to forecast revenue and plan the business. Li remembers a “Wild West” atmosphere at Facebook back then, when the company’s infrastructure wasn’t very polished. She had to track down engineers to learn about data warehouses and build forecasting models from scratch. Her ability to change and come up with new ideas in this chaotic environment set the stage for her future work.
Susan Li has been a key part of Meta’s financial growth over the past 17 years. She joined the finance team during a time of rapid growth and helped with important events like Facebook’s 2012 initial public offering (IPO) and the creation of its advertising revenue model. Her first job was to predict revenue for a new online sales model. This was hard because she had to simulate how supply and demand would change in a business that was growing quickly.
Li’s rise through the ranks at Meta was steady and important. She became Vice President of Finance in 2016, overseeing teams in business planning, finance, and treasury. Her ability to see the big picture and work well with others earned her the trust of coworkers and bosses, including former CFOs David Ebersman and David Wehner, who she says were important mentors. Their support for her to take on difficult tasks helped Li grow beyond her comfort zone and get ready for the CFO job.
Li took over as CFO from David Wehner in November 2022. This was part of a long-term plan for who would take over the job. At the time, Meta was having a lot of problems, like its first-ever drop in quarterly revenue and investors being unsure about its big investments in the metaverse. Li’s job as CFO is to set Meta’s financial strategy, run the company, and find a balance between innovation and fiscal discipline.
Susan Li is Meta’s CFO and is in charge of a wide range of tasks, such as financial strategy, planning, operations, investor relations, and facilities management. Her job is very important for making sure that Meta’s long-term vision and financial goals are in line with each other, especially since the company is spending a lot of money on AI and the metaverse. Li’s strategic choices help CEO Mark Zuckerberg reach his goals, such as improving the core advertising business and looking into new projects like AI-powered humanoid robots and augmented reality through Reality Labs.
Li has stressed the importance of being flexible and efficient in her leadership. During Meta’s “year of efficiency” in 2023, she led efforts to make the company run more smoothly by flattening management structures and moving resources to projects that were more important. This meant making hard choices, like shutting down some teams and products, like the Portal device, to focus on Meta’s core strengths and new opportunities.
She has a very forward-thinking way of planning her finances. Instead of making small changes to old plans, Li’s finance team at Meta starts each planning cycle with a “blank sheet of paper” to deal with the company’s biggest problems. This way of thinking shows that she can balance being creative with being practical, which keeps Meta competitive in a tech world that is always changing.
Li’s work with AI is especially interesting. Li actively seeks insights from other CFOs and business process outsourcing (BPO) partners to find out how AI can make operations run more smoothly. This is because Meta’s AI engineers are more focused on developing products than on finance-specific applications. Her forward-looking approach is shown by her curiosity and willingness to learn from other industries.
Susan Li became one of the youngest CFOs at a Fortune 500 company at the age of 36. The average age for the job is 53. Her hiring put her in the same group as other young finance leaders, like Zachary Kirkhorn from Tesla. This shows how corporate leadership is changing over time. Li is in a unique position to handle the challenges of a tech giant with billions of users and a wide range of products, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reality Labs, because she is young and has worked at Meta for a long time.
Li’s background as an immigrant and her time as an outsider have influenced how she leads. She has been open about how important it is for her to accept who she is and how important it is for others to do the same. Her success has been due in large part to her ability to work with people from different teams and backgrounds, which has created a collaborative atmosphere at Meta.
Li’s leadership has come under fire in 2025 as Meta deals with a competitive tech landscape and regulatory issues. She sold $6.3 million worth of Meta stock in February, using restricted stock units (RSUs) to pay her taxes. This was normal financial management, not a lack of faith in the company. Meta also said that its quarterly dividend would go up by 5%, which shows that the company is financially stable and cares about its shareholders.
Li talked about Meta’s plans for continued headcount growth through 2026 during a conference call in July 2025. This growth will be driven by hiring more people in key areas like AI and advertising. She also said that Meta started making money from its Threads platform by adding ads, which could help bring in more money. But she lowered expectations for quick profits from Meta’s generative AI projects, saying that the company was looking at these investments in the long term.
Li has an effect on more than just Meta. She is on the board of Alaska Air Group, which shows how she has a bigger effect on how businesses are run. She is a role model for Asian American executives and women in tech, as shown by her being named one of Forbes’ 2024 Power Women and being featured in Gold House’s leadership profiles.
As Meta’s CFO, Susan Li has a lot on her plate. One of her biggest problems is managing investor expectations while the company makes big investments in AI and the metaverse, which haven’t yet made a lot of money. Li is sticking with these long-term bets, even though the company’s Reality Labs division, which works on augmented and virtual reality, has been criticized for being too expensive. This is in line with Zuckerberg’s vision for the future of connectivity.
Regulatory pressures, like the €797 million EU fine for breaking antitrust laws, have also forced the company to make strategic changes, like letting third-party providers use Facebook Marketplace. Li’s ability to handle these difficulties while keeping Meta’s finances in good shape shows how good she is at strategy.
As Meta keeps coming up with new ideas in AI, virtual reality, and social media, Li’s leadership will be very important. She is a dynamic leader who can guide Meta through a time of change because she stresses the importance of learning from mentors, taking on challenges, and promoting efficiency.
In conclusion, Susan Li’s story of becoming Meta’s CFO is one of strength, flexibility, and excellence. Her work on Meta’s financial strategy, from its IPO to its current focus on AI and the metaverse, shows that she can balance new ideas with being responsible with money. Li is one of the youngest and most powerful CFOs in the tech industry. She is not only shaping Meta’s future, but she is also encouraging the next generation of leaders to embrace their unique points of view and take advantage of opportunities in a world that is changing quickly.
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