Facebook vice chairman of world public policy Joel Kaplan and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg leave the Elysee Presidential Palace after a gathering with French President Emmanuel Macron on May 23, 2018 in Paris, France.
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Facebook parent Meta is replacing its president of world affairs, Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan, the corporate’s current policy vice chairman and a former Republican Party staffer.
The shake-up comes three weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and it’s the newest sign of how tech corporations are positioning themselves for a recent administration in Washington.
Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister, said he’s stepping down, citing the brand new 12 months as the appropriate time to maneuver on. He’ll get replaced by Kaplan, who will tackle the title of chief global affairs officer.
Kaplan was White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush, and he appeared on the Recent York Stock Exchange with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Trump in December. He also attended Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing in 2018 as a private friend, causing an argument for the social media company.
“I’ll look ahead to spending a number of months handing over the reins — and to representing the corporate at quite a lot of international gatherings in Q1 of this 12 months,” Clegg wrote in a memo to his staff that he shared on Facebook on Thursday.
Clegg joined the corporate in 2018 after a profession in British politics with the Liberal Democrats party, and he helped Meta navigate incredible scrutiny, especially over the corporate’s influence on elections and its efforts to manage harmful content.
Clegg also helped steer the corporate through the Cambridge Analytica scandal, wherein Facebook shared user data with third-party political consultants. He also represented the corporate in Washington and London, continuously at panels for artificial intelligence and at congressional hearings.
“My time at the corporate coincided with a big resetting of the connection between ‘big tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in recent laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector,” Clegg wrote.
In his note, Clegg said Kevin Martin, a former Federal Communications Commission chairman, would replace Kaplan as Meta’s vice chairman of world policy. He mentioned that Kaplan would work closely with David Ginsburg, the corporate’s vice chairman of world communications and public affairs.
“Nick: I’m grateful for the whole lot you have done for Meta and the world these past seven years,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release. “You’ve got … built a robust team to hold this work forward. I’m excited for Joel to step into this role next given his deep experience and insight leading our policy work for a few years.”
Semafor first reported the news.
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