UFC’s Dana White joins Meta’s board weeks before Trump takes office

Dana White, CEO of the Final Preventing Championship and a longtime buddy of President-elect Donald Trump, is becoming a member of the board of Fb father or mother Meta two weeks earlier than the brand new Trump administration begins.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had a very tense relationship with Trump through the president-elect’s first time period in workplace, mentioned in a Fb put up Monday that White has constructed the UFC “into one of the crucial invaluable, quickest rising, and hottest sports activities enterprises on this planet.”

“I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his capacity to construct such a beloved model,” Zuckerberg mentioned within the put up.

Zuckerberg has been practicing mixed martial arts in recent times and has attended a number of UFC occasions, underscoring his enthusiasm for the fight sport.

In 2023, Zuckerberg tore his ACL throughout a sparring session as a part of coaching for a competitive MMA fight. That 12 months, Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk traded verbal barbs and indicated that they had been prepared to struggle one another in a match that White would assist produce. However Zuckerberg later said the struggle was off as a result of Musk wasn’t “severe.”

White appeared with Trump onstage on election night time in November after the victory was in hand.

“That is what occurs when the machine comes after you,” White mentioned, after being launched by Trump. “What you have seen during the last a number of years, that is what it seems to be like. Could not cease him, he retains going ahead, he would not stop, he is essentially the most resilient hardworking man I’ve ever met in my life.”

Final month, Meta confirmed that the corporate had donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Zuckerberg was additionally considered one of a number of tech executives who visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seashore, Florida, following the election.

Musk has had his personal connections to UFC within the current previous. In 2021, Musk joined the board of Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor Group, which owns the UFC via TKO Group Holdings. He exited a 12 months later.

Different new members of Meta’s board embody John Elkann, the CEO of Italian holding firm Exor, and former Microsoft head of company technique Charlie Songhurst, Zuckerberg mentioned.

Elkann is chairman of Exor’s vehicle firms Stellantis and Ferrari, whereas Songhurst has spent the earlier 12 months on Meta’s advisory group serving to the corporate with its synthetic intelligence and expertise methods, Zuckerberg added.

“We now have large alternatives forward in AI, wearables, and the way forward for social media, and our board will assist us obtain our imaginative and prescient,” Zuckerberg mentioned.

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