Meta Platforms Inc. elected three new directors to its board, including Ultimate Fighting Championship Chief Executive Officer Dana White, one of the media industry’s most influential executives and a high-profile campaigner for US President-elect Donald Trump.
Along with White, the social-media company on Monday named Charlie Songhurst, an investor and former Microsoft Corp. executive who already advises Meta on artificial intelligence products, and John Elkann, CEO of Exor NV, a holding company controlled by the Agnelli family that has stakes in European businesses including Ferrari NV and Juventus Football Club.
The additions bring Meta’s board to 13 directors, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who holds the title of chairman and retains majority voting control through the company’s dual-class stock structure.
“Charlie, Dana and John will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables and the future of human connection,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.
Zuckerberg, 40, has largely remade Meta’s board in the past five years, a change in leadership that has coincided with his pivot toward artificial intelligence and the metaverse, a digital world in which the company hopes people will someday work, play and exercise. All but two of Meta’s current directors have joined since 2019. In some cases, Zuckerberg has brought on fellow Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, like DoorDash Inc. CEO Tony Xu and Dropbox Inc. CEO Drew Houston, who is a personal friend of the Meta co-founder.
White, 55, also a Zuckerberg friend, has expanded UFC into one of the world’s most popular sports and entertainment businesses. Zuckerberg, an avid mixed martial arts fan and a recreational fighter, posted a picture on Instagram alongside White from a UFC fight in February, and White sought Zuckerberg’s advice on incorporating AI into UFC’s rankings system last year.
White was also a vocal supporter of Trump during his 2024 campaign, speaking at the Republican National Convention in the summer and at Trump’s election-night event. White appeared in Trump’s first TikTok video, and has been credited with helping raise his profile among young male voters.
Trump has been critical of Meta in the past, and in recent months Zuckerberg has been working to improve their relationship, including dining at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in November. Last week, Meta — parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — named Joel Kaplan, an executive with deep GOP ties, as policy chief.
Songhurst was previously general manager of global corporate strategy at Microsoft, where he was involved in some of the company’s biggest deals, including its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype. He’s also been advising Zuckerberg and Meta’s other executives on AI since last year as part of a newly created product advisory council. Songhurst will leave that council to take a board seat, a company spokesperson said.
Elkann, 48, is the executive chairman of Stellantis NV and Ferrari, and leads the nonprofit Agnelli Foundation, which focuses on education.
