Meta policy chief Joel Kaplan to leave the company in 2027 after 15 years

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said on X on Tuesday that he planned to spend time with his family and work out what to do next. The post came as he announced that he would leave the company in 2027, after more than 15 years.

A spokesperson and a company official with knowledge of the departure confirmed Kaplan’s planned exit to POLITICO on Tuesday, 20 October 2026. Axios first reported it.

Kaplan said: “After more than 15 years at Meta, I've decided the time is right for me to move on from my role as Chief Global Affairs Officer. It's been an extraordinary journey and opportunity, and I'm very proud of the team we built and work we did.”

He will remain at Meta through the US midterm elections and into 2027, overseeing the handover of responsibilities that have made him one of the company’s central figures in Washington and beyond.

Kaplan joined Meta in 2011 to run US public policy, when the company was Facebook and had no established government-relations playbook. He built Facebook’s US policy operation from the ground up.

A Republican, Kaplan had previously served as deputy chief of staff for policy under President George W. Bush and was a Marine Corps artillery officer.

His role grew with the company’s political problems. Kaplan advised Mark Zuckerberg on matters ranging from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the end of Meta’s fact-checking programme, and influenced its policies on speech, misinformation and artificial intelligence.

He also helped mend the relationship between Zuckerberg and Trump after Meta temporarily suspended Trump’s account following the January 6 riot.

In January 2025, Kaplan succeeded the former UK politician Nick Clegg as chief global affairs officer. The promotion put him in charge of Meta’s government relations during the run-up to President Donald Trump’s return to the White House early that year.

Zuckerberg said: “Joel has worked on virtually every tough issue Meta has faced for more than 15 years.”

He added: “When he arrived, there was no playbook for ensuring our products would be available to the billions of people around the world who now rely on them.”

Meta will distribute Kaplan’s responsibilities across four executives. Dina Powell McCormick, the company’s president and vice chairman, will add external affairs to her existing work, including co-leading Meta Compute, the company’s artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative.

C.J. Mahoney, who became chief legal officer in January, will assume policy responsibilities alongside his legal role. Mahoney is a former Trump administration trade official and former Microsoft general counsel.

Brian Rice, who worked earlier as an aide to then-Secretary of State John Kerry, moved up this year to lead US government affairs.

Tucker Bounds will oversee communications and public affairs. He was named global head of communications and public affairs in September, after more than a dozen years at Meta; he previously spoke for the late Senator John McCain.

The arrangement leaves Kaplan in place for the election period while the executives taking over different parts of his portfolio settle into their expanded roles.