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Meta has appointed mixed martial arts titan and prominent Donald Trump supporter Dana White to its board of directors, as the social media platform seeks to make inroads with the incoming US presidential administration.
White, the chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, has grown the mixed martial arts promotion group into one of the most popular sports businesses in the world.
He has been a vocal Trump supporter during last year’s campaign, speaking on his election night, while the president-elect has made some high-profile appearances at UFC matches. White is also a friend to Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who has in recent years documented his keen interest in martial arts.
The $1.6tn social media platform also named two other new board members on Monday: Charlie Songhurst, a technology investor and former Microsoft executive, and John Elkann, the chief executive of Exor, a European investment group. Exor is controlled by the Agnelli company and holds stakes in Ferrari, Stellantis, Juventus Football Club and The Economist Group.
Zuckerberg said: “Dana, John and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with [artificial intelligence], wearables and the future of human connection.”
Zuckerberg, who chairs the board, holds majority of the voting power at Meta under its dual-class share structure.
The Meta CEO has embraced cage fighting and martial arts recreationally in recent years in what some observers see as an attempt to revamp his image following years of scandals over issues such as privacy and moderation at Meta.
Last October, White said he had reached out to Zuckerberg for help with improving the UFC rankings system through AI — a technology that Meta and its Big Tech peers have been racing to develop and deploy. He is also the owner of Power Slap, a slap fighting promotion company.
White said: “I’ve never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta’s board. I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future.”
He added: “There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level.”
News of the boardroom additions comes just weeks before Donald Trump is set to return to the White House, and his Republican party is poised to control both chambers of Congress.
Following years of cool relations between the president-elect and Zuckerberg, during which Trump accused its Facebook platform of repeatedly censoring right-wing voices, the social media chief has been on a charm offensive, publicly congratulating Trump on his victory and dining with him at Mar-a-Lago. Meta also donated $1mn to his inauguration fund.
Prominent Silicon Valley figures have made similar trips, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, or made donations to Trump’s inauguration fund, such as OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.
Last week, Meta said it was replacing global affairs chief Nick Clegg with Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican known for overseeing the company’s relationship with conservatives.
The company now has 13 directors on its board in total, including powerful venture capitalist and Trump ally Marc Andreessen, who has been helping with recruitment for Elon Musk’s panel aimed at cutting US government spending.
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