Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister, has resigned from his position as head of global affairs and communications at Meta, after selling nearly $19 million (£15 million) of shares in the tech giant during his six-year tenure.
Clegg, 57, still holds nearly 39,000 shares of Meta stock, worth about $21 million at the current market price. His total remuneration at the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner has not been publicly disclosed. He will be succeeded by his deputy, Joel Kaplan, a former member of the George W. Bush administration who is widely viewed as the company’s most prominent conservative influence.
Clegg’s exit has sparked new speculation about his next move, with his allies suggesting he may take on a role in artificial intelligence. He has criticized the regulation of AI, aligning more closely with the position of Tony Blair, another former prime minister, who has championed the potential of AI to transform public services. Clegg argued last year that too much attention has been paid to the risks rather than the opportunities offered by technology.
Friends say Clegg, who returned to London in 2022, is open to a role in the public or private sector in Europe. His wife, Miriam, is said to have political aspirations of her own, and has recently set up a research center in Spain.
Clegg’s decision to join Facebook in 2018, shortly after receiving a knighthood, was met with criticism given his prominent role in the pro-EU campaign and the People’s Vote movement. He made clear at the time, in a column in The Guardian, that he saw no point in prolonging his political involvement at home once he had committed to moving to Silicon Valley.
Filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that the most recent sale of Clegg’s Meta stock was in November, worth about $4 million. His tenure at the company coincided with intense political pressure over data protection, fake news, and regulatory oversight issues. However, the period proved lucrative for the former Liberal Democrat leader, who led his party into a coalition with David Cameron’s Conservatives in 2010, but lost his seat in 2017.
In a farewell Facebook post, Clegg described his time at Meta as “the adventure of a lifetime”, saying he was proud to have helped ensure that innovation went hand in hand with “transparency, accountability” and “new forms of governance”.
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