Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Great Jones has been acquired, Linda Yaccarino starts her CEO job at Twitter, and we profile the woman behind Meta’s advertising machine. Have a great Tuesday!
– Getting Meta. For the past decade, Nicola Mendelsohn has been the engine behind much of Meta’s advertising operation. The British ad exec joined then-Facebook in 2013 as its London-based vice president of Europe, Middle East, and Africa before moving to a role as VP of its global business group in 2021.
Then, this February, Meta promoted Mendelsohn to head that global business group—a career advancement that made her one of the most senior women at the tech giant following the exits of Sheryl Sandberg and Marne Levine.
In the new issue of Fortune, I profiled Mendelsohn. Throughout her career ascent, she’s navigated another challenge: a cancer diagnosis. In 2016, the mother of four was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, a relatively little-known form of blood cancer that 1.2 million people live with around the world. The cancer is considered incurable.
Today, Mendelsohn has no evidence of disease. But follicular lymphoma typically recurs in patients six to eight times throughout their life.
The Meta exec is an optimist, and she believes there will be a cure for the illness within her lifetime. She brings that same attitude to her work at Meta. She stepped into her new job overseeing much of Meta’s $114 billion in annual ad revenue at a difficult time for the tech giant: four rounds of layoffs of at least 21,000 workers; three straight quarters of year-over-year revenue decline, followed, finally, by a year-over-year sales bump last quarter; and a gloomy economic climate for top advertisers, to whom Mendelsohn acts as the face of the company.
Mendelsohn says that her cancer diagnosis didn’t lead her to make any major changes in her life—”still married to the same guy, same job,” she jokes—but it did cement her management style. She breaks down seemingly insurmountable challenges into more manageable pieces.
Whether it’s a catastrophic health diagnosis or her employer’s existential crisis over the future of social media, her strategy seems to have worked so far. Read the full story about the woman behind Meta’s advertising machine here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- First day. Elon Musk recently said that the majority of advertisers came back to Twitter, but the New York Times reported that ad revenue is down 59% compared to last year. Yesterday was CEO Linda Yaccarino's first day on the job, and among the work she has ahead of her is making the platform safer and more stable in order to recoup advertising dollars. Fortune
- New kitchen. Instagram-popular cookware company Great Jones cofounded by Sierra Tishgart has been acquired by Meyer Corporation, one of its investors and suppliers. (Meyer is a private company. The details of the deal were not made public.) Tishgart said that the acquisition came at a time when venture capital is harder to come by, and Great Jones will remain its own brand within Meyer. Fast Company
- Too vague. A federal judge has ruled Tennessee's law attempting to ban drag shows is unconstitutional for being overly vague and broad. The law, which would have banned male or female impersonation was set to go into effect April 1 but was challenged by an LGBTQ theater company. "This win represents a triumph over hate,” a representative from the company says. Associated Press
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Kristen Welker is taking over as moderator of NBC News's Meet the Press. Frédérique Dame and Crystal Huang have been promoted to general partner at Alphabet's venture capital firm GV. Global mining company Fortescue has appointed Christine Morris as CFO; she will report to CEO Fiona Hick, giving Fortescue an all-female top leadership team. Sarah Shin has been appointed chief people officer at Komodo Health. Sasha Quinton has been promoted to executive vice president and president of school reading events at Scholastic.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Haley town hall. In a CNN town hall, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticized former President Donald Trump for putting off entitlement and retirement reform, his congratulatory remarks towards North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and his stance on bringing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. She also restated that she is anti-abortion and would defund sanctuary cities. Axios
- Me time. People who have less than two hours of free time per day are less happy, and moms in opposite-sex partnerships are more likely to lack that me time. A leadership coach says women tend to engage in leisure activities only under the guise of productivity—having a glass of wine while networking, rather than just indulging as a way to kick back. She says that recruiting an accountability buddy or sticking to a schedule can help bake in more personal time. Wall Street Journal
- Big bet. Meg Gentle started as an investor at Highly Innovative Fuels, but her background in energy enabled her to get more involved; now she runs HIF’s $6 billion project to make fossil fuels greener. The development in Matagorda County, Texas, will use wind energy to separate hydrogen from water and combine it with recycled carbon dioxide. The product will be chemically indistinguishable from gas but could lead to a reduction in emissions equal to 400,000 fewer cars on the road. Forbes
- Icelandic tourism. Iceland’s first lady and former UN tourism ambassador Eliza Reid says that tourism has helped connect the country with the rest of the world. The number of visitors to Iceland skyrocketed after a volcano erupted in 2010; its disruptive plume taught the world just how close Iceland is to Europe and the U.S. Still, Reid doesn't consider over-tourism a problem since more people are making the trip in the off-season. New York Times
ON MY RADAR
Elliot Page: Embracing my trans identity saved me Time
A mother’s exchange for her daughter’s future The New Yorker
The trade-offs for privacy in a post-Dobbs era Wired
Inside the Barbie Dreamhouse, a fuchsia fantasy inspired by Palm Springs Architectural Digest
PARTING WORDS
“We were building the [Drew Barrymore] show, and it was hard, challenging, scary, emotional, exhausting, and overwhelming, but I could handle it. Which was so great because the divorce convinced me I couldn’t handle things.”
—Drew Barrymore on healing from her divorce
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