Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg joins board of SurveyMonkey

By Sarah McBride

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is taking a seat on the board of SurveyMonkey, the online polling company that was run by her late husband, Dave Goldberg.

SurveyMonkey, a privately held company valued at $2 billion,

also appointed to its board David Ebersman, the chief executive officer of behavioral health company Lyra Health and the former chief financial officer of Facebook. Ebersman shepherded Facebook through its 2012 initial public offering.

The new appoinments were reflected in an update to the website of Palo Alto, Calif.-based company on Monday.

The board is conducting a search for a new chief executive officer to succeed Goldberg, who died in a treadmill accident while on vacation with his wife in Mexico in May. President Barack Obama led tributes for the one-time music executive, who had joined SurveyMonkey as its chief executive in 2009.

In a statement, Sandberg said she had watched Goldberg and his team fulfil "their mission to help people make better decisions" and that she looked forward to helping "realize Dave's vision of building a lasting company that will impact the way we all do business for years to come."

In a Facebook post last month about mourning, Sandberg wrote: "Starting the transition back to work has been a savior, a chance to feel useful and connected."

Sandberg is the second largest shareholder in SurveyMonkey after Tiger Global Management, whose partner Lee Fixel is also a SurveyMonkey board member. Other backers include Google Inc. and Spectrum Equity.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Simon Cameron-Moore)