Oliván was born in 1977 inSabiñánigo,Huesca, Spain.[2][4] His father Florián is a retired businessman who ran a hardware store and an arcade, while his mother María Pilar is a retired professor from the Biello Aragón Institute.[5][6]
Between 1995 and 2002, Oliván studied electrical and industrial engineering atTecnun, the School of Engineering of theUniversity of Navarra inPamplona.[5][7] He then joinedSiemens as a research and development engineer inMunich, Germany, where he patented an algorithmic system fordigital image processing, before moving to Tokyo, Japan, to work forNTT Data on wireless video technologies.[2][4][1] He later worked as product manager atSiemens Mobile where he led a team responsible for mobile device development.[8][9]
In 2005, he enrolled in theMBA program atStanford University,[10] where he took a course that analyzed case studies of startups, includingFacebook.[11] As a student, along with several friends, he worked on creating a Spanish-language version of Facebook, called Nosuni.[4] Though the project was a failure,[12]Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, reached out and asked Oliván to work for him. He accepted the offer after graduating in 2007.[10][13]
Oliván joined Facebook (nowMeta Platforms) in October 2007 as head of international growth underChamath Palihapitiya.[14][11] As a founding member of the growth team,[15] he oversaw the company's international expansion—into new markets and languages.[16][4] From 2011 to 2018, he was vice president of the growth team.[14] He advocated theInternet.org and Facebook Lite initiatives during this period. He advised multiple acquisitions including that ofWhatsApp andOnavo.[16][9] In 2018, he took charge of the trust and safety team to tacklemisinformation on its platforms.[9] He was the vice president of Central Products between 2018 and 2022, after which he was promoted to chief growth officer.[14]
In August 2022, Oliván replacedSheryl Sandberg aschief operating officer after she stepped down 14years into the role.[16][17] As part of a reorganization in January 2025, Oliván also oversees the business operations of theReality Labs division.[18]
