Meta's top policy chief is leaving after more than 15 years at the company

Joel Kaplan, Meta $META's chief global affairs officer, will leave the company in 2027 after more than 15 years, according to Bloomberg. The news came from a company representative.

Kaplan will stay through the U.S. midterm elections and into 2027 to oversee a transition, according to Axios. That handover will bring in executives who handle external affairs and who span the two major parties, Axios said, with many having joined Meta's leadership team within the past year.

Kaplan joined Meta in 2011 to oversee U.S. public policy, according to Bloomberg. Earlier in his career, he served on George W. Bush's campaign and later in Bush's administration, and he has long counseled CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Kaplan moved into the top global policy job in the run-up to President Donald Trump's early-2025 return to the White House, according to Bloomberg.

Axios described Kaplan as a former deputy White House chief of staff under Bush who assembled Facebook's U.S. policy operation from the ground up.

"Joel has worked on virtually every tough issue Meta has faced for more than 15 years," Zuckerberg said in a statement to Axios. "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," Zuckerberg added.

Several executives will absorb Kaplan's responsibilities, according to Axios:

Dina Powell McCormick, Meta's president and vice chairman, will take responsibility for external affairs on top of her existing duties. She also co-leads Meta Compute, the company's AI infrastructure initiative.

C.J. Mahoney, who became chief legal officer in January, will take on policy responsibilities. He is a former Trump administration trade official and former Microsoft $MSFT general counsel.

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

Tucker Bounds, who once spoke on behalf of the late Sen. John McCain, was named in September as global head of communications and public affairs. He has been with Meta for more than a dozen years, according to Axios.