UFC CEO Dana White joins Meta’s board of administrators : NPR

Final Combating Championship CEO Dana White speaks at President-elect Donald Trump’s Election Evening occasion in West Palm Seaside, Florida on November 6. The mum or dad firm of Fb and Instagram has appointed Meta White to its board of administrators.

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Dana White, the president of the Final Combating Championship and a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, is becoming a member of the board of administrators of Fb and Instagram mum or dad firm Meta.

White’s election as meta director comes two weeks earlier than Trump takes workplace, as is the norm in Silicon Valley Courting the next administrationfollowing a cold relationship with Trump and his allies, who’ve lengthy accused tech platforms together with Meta of anti-conservative bias.

Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman They each donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Zuckerberg is among the many tech giants who’ve dined with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago for the reason that election. Final week His name is Joel Kaplana veteran company govt and Republican who beforehand labored within the George W. Bush White Home and was head of world coverage.

White is a longtime buddy of Trump Who spoke at the Republican National Convention This summer time she appeared in Trump’s first TikTok video. On election evening, White joined Trump on stage at his victory get together, thanking a number of podcast hosts and… Online influencers Which, together with the UFC, has been credited with selling the president-elect Attractiveness among young people.

white and zuckerberg, Who trained as a mixed martial arts fighteradditionally turned pleasant. Zuckerberg praised White’s efforts in reworking the UFC into “some of the beneficial, fastest-growing, and hottest sports activities organizations on the earth.” Share Facebook on monday. “I admired him as an entrepreneur and his capacity to construct such a beloved model,” Zuckerberg continued.

“I used to be by no means excited about becoming a member of a board till I obtained a proposal to hitch Meta’s board,” White stated in a press release. “I’m a agency believer that social media and synthetic intelligence are the longer term.” statement. White spoke with Zuckerberg about utilizing AI to enhance the UFC’s rankings, ESPN reported In October.

Meta additionally named as administrators John Elkann, CEO of European funding agency Ekon and CEO of carmakers Stellantis and Ferrari, and Charlie Songhurst, a know-how investor who beforehand led company technique at Microsoft. Songhurst joined a bunch that advises Meta on synthetic intelligence final 12 months.

The additions increase Meta’s board from 10 to 13 administrators, together with Zuckerberg, who serves as chairman.

“We’ve great alternatives forward in synthetic intelligence, wearables, and the way forward for social media, and our Board of Administrators will assist us notice our imaginative and prescient,” Zuckerberg wrote in his Fb publish asserting the brand new members.