Overview
- Meta confirmed that Joel Kaplan, its chief global affairs officer, will depart following the midterm elections after a transition period and will remain in place through that handover.
- Kaplan has worked at Meta since 2011 and became chief global affairs officer in 2025 after Nick Clegg left, giving him more than 15 years leading the company’s policy and government-relations work.
- Company statements and reporting say Meta will not name a single replacement and that senior executives including Dina Powell McCormick and chief legal officer CJ Mahoney are set to take on parts of Kaplan’s portfolio.
- At Meta, Kaplan led responses to major controversies such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the end of the platform’s third-party fact-checking program, and he helped repair ties between Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump after the January 6 account suspension.
- Kaplan, a Republican and former Marine Corps artillery officer who served as an adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, said on X that he plans to spend time with his family and decide his next steps.