Nick Clegg is leaving Meta after 7 years overseeing its policy decisions

Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister turned chief executive of Meta, is leaving after a seven-year stint at the social media company. Clegg announced his resignation for X and Threads, saying “this is the right time for me to transition from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta.”

Clegg will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime political operative and former aide to George W. Bush in the White House, known for his deep connections to the Republican circles in Washington. As Chief Global Affairs Officer, Kaplan — as Traffic lights — will be in a good position to step in for Metta when Donald Trump takes control of the White House.

Clegg joined Meta in 2018a year after the British public branded the former Liberal Democrat leader unelectable. The company, then known as Facebook, was trying to improve its political relations in the wake of Cambridge Analytica and other scandals. In 2022 he was to president of global affairs, a position that reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg (his previous role was overseen by then-Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg).

The former politician played a key role in some of Meta’s most significant and controversial decisions. He publicly defended the company’s decision not to implement its own of politicians and is the author of his public statements about and from Donald Trump’s Facebook profile. More recently, Clegg criticized the European Union’s approach to technology regulation, arguing that the bloc advances in AI.

“My time at the company has coincided with a significant reconfiguration of the relationship between ‘big tech’ and societal pressures, manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector,” Clegg wrote in on topics. “I hope I have played some part in seeking to connect the very different worlds of technology and politics—worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways around the world.”

Clegg said in a that he will spend the next “several months” working with Kaplan and “representing the company at a number of international gatherings in the first quarter of this year” before officially stepping down from the company. He did not indicate what he might do next.