Joel Kaplan, Meta's global affairs chief and top political adviser to Mark Zuckerberg, is stepping down after a 15-year tenure. The conservative lobbyist helped navigate the Facebook parent through Donald Trump's second administration, a period marked by criticism of social media content moderation. Kaplan, who previously served as a Supreme Court clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia and deputy chief of staff for George W.
Bush, joined Meta in 2011. He succeeded Nick Clegg earlier this year. Zuckerberg praised Kaplan as a strong advocate for Meta's policies and a personal friend.
Kaplan's departure follows the hiring of Dina Powell McCormick, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Trump administration official, as Meta's president. Powell McCormick, a key power broker overseeing the company's AI-related capital deployment, recently joined Trump's China business delegation. Meta has not named a successor, with Kaplan expected to leave next year.
The Silicon Valley executive's exit was first reported by Axios. Meta pledged a $600 billion investment in the US by 2028 to build data centre infrastructure.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing