Meta’s global policy chief Joel Kaplan to leave after 15 years

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s head of global policy and the top Washington adviser to Mark Zuckerberg, said on Tuesday that he was leaving the company after 15 years¹. Kaplan, Meta’s global affairs officer, is leaving after a long tenure at the company². He will leave in 2027⁶.

Kaplan will lead the policy team through the midterms before he leaves⁵. He is a longtime top adviser to Zuckerberg with staunch Republican ties, and his title is chief global affairs officer⁴. His exit is the departure of the executive who fostered Meta’s closer ties with Trump⁵. He moved into the job in the run-up to President Donald Trump’s early-2025 return to the White House⁶.

Why it matters to investors

Kaplan’s departure removes the executive most associated with Meta’s relationship with the Trump administration^4,5. Zuckerberg has built a closer relationship with Trump since the inauguration⁵, and Kaplan’s appointment ahead of that return was part of the same repositioning^4,6.

The timing matters because the political ground may move again. By staying through the midterms, Kaplan will manage Meta’s policy work during the election campaign and then hand the role to a successor^5,6. Meta’s lobbying chief is leaving at a point when the company’s dealings in Washington increasingly turn on AI³.

Those AI questions are now central to policy. One subject of debate has been Trump’s idea of having US government partnerships with AI firms³. That is part of the brief Kaplan’s successor will inherit^1,3.

For investors, the change is about access and continuity. A company that tied its Washington strategy to a single senior adviser with close Republican links will need to rebuild those links under a new head of policy, whichever party controls Congress after the vote^4,5.

What to watch

The first question is who succeeds Kaplan, and whether Meta chooses another adviser with Republican ties or someone with a different political profile^1,4. The second is how the policy team handles the period through the midterms, which Kaplan will still lead⁵.

Investors will also watch Meta’s position on AI policy, including government partnerships with AI firms, during the transition^2,3. Any change in the tone of Meta’s dealings with the White House after the midterms would show how much of the relationship rested on Kaplan himself^4,5. The handover is due in 2027⁶.