Athira Sethu
Kochi, 7 January 2025
Meta Platforms announced on Monday that it has added three new members to its board of directors. Among them is Dana White, the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a close friend of President-elect Donald Trump.
The other two new board members are Charlie Songhurst, an investor and former Microsoft executive, and John Elkann, the CEO of Exor, a company that owns businesses like Ferrari and Christian Louboutin.
According to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, White, Songhurst, and Elkann will bring great expertise to help Meta move forward in areas such as AI, wearables, and the future of human connections.
Dana White has been associated with Donald Trump for a long time and also supported the latter in previous Republican National Conventions. Zuckerberg and White have also become close friends over time, especially because Zuckerberg is a fan of mixed martial arts and even attempted recreational fighting. In 2022, Zuckerberg thanked Dana White on Instagram when he was invited to a UFC fight. They were seen together at the event.
John Elkann is a person who works as the executive chairman of Stellantis and Ferrari. In addition, he runs the Agnelli Foundation, a nonprofit education-focused foundation. Charlie Songhurst is an active member of Meta’s AI advisory group that assists the company in charting its future strategies on AI and other related technologies.
This comes as Meta looks to expand focus on the new technologies, strengthening its position as a leading company in the tech world. This follows other recent decisions like hiring Republican policy expert Joel Kaplan to oversee global affairs at Meta.
