Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms (META+1.77%) has tapped Joel Kaplan to lead its global affairs team, putting the company’s most prominent Republican in a top job.
The move comes just weeks ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month and as big tech companies prepare for a shift in federal policy. Several major CEOs, from Zuckerberg himself to Amazon’s (AMZN+0.26%) Jeff Bezos and Google’s (GOOGL-0.07%) Sundar Pichai, recently met with Trump to discuss his vision for his administration.
Kaplan, Meta’s current vice president of global policy, worked for Former President George W. Bush as the White House deputy chief of staff. Last month, he joined Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Trump at the New York Stock Exchange, where Trump was being honored as Time magazine’s Person of the Year. In 2018, he attended the Senate confirmation hearing for his “friend” Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which sparked an internal backlash.
Semafor first reported the shakeup, which was confirmed on Facebook by Nick Clegg, Meta’s current president of global affairs. Clegg said he would continue representing the company throughout the first quarter of 2025.
“My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between ‘big tech’ and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector,” Clegg wrote. “I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe.”
Before joining Meta as vice president of global affairs in October 2018, Clegg was a major politico in the United Kingdom. He served as Prime Minister David Cameron’s deputy prime minister, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and a member of parliament.
During his tenure, Clegg represented Meta in both Washington D.C. and London, often speaking at events about the intersection of technology and democracy and Congressional hearings. He also helped guide Meta through the fallout from the scandal revolving around Cambridge Analytica, the British data firm that illegally used social media data to target Americans during the 2016 presidential election. Meta, then known as Facebook, paid a $5 billion fine to settle with the Federal Trade Commission.
Clegg spoke favorably of Kaplan, writing that he was “thrilled” with his appointment and calling him “quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time.” Former Federal Communications Commission Chair Kevin Martin, who was nominated by Bush in April 2001, will become Meta’s vice president of global policy, Clegg wrote. Martin has been at Meta since 2015.
“You’ve made an important impact advancing Meta’s voice and values around the world, as well as our vision for AI and the metaverse,” Zuckerberg wrote in a reply to Clegg. “You’ve also built a strong team to carry 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 many years.”
The post Meta taps its top Republican to oversee global affairs ahead of the Trump administration appeared first on Quartz.
