Nick Clegg made about $19 million from the sale of Meta shares during his six-year tenure as owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to filings.
The former British deputy prime minister had sold $18.4m (£14.8m) worth of shares in the group before announcing on Thursday that he was stepping down as president of Global Affairs and Communications.
His total salary at Meta has not been disclosed, but he still owns about 39,000 shares of the company’s stock, worth about $21 million at current prices.
He will be succeeded by deputy Joel Kaplan, who is known as the company’s most prominent conservative voice, having previously served as deputy chief of staff for policy under former President George W. Bush. .
People close to Mr. Clegg said the decision to leave Mr. Mehta was his own, but Mr. Kaplan had long been rumored as a possible successor if a Republican won the White House.
There has been speculation about what the 57-year-old will do next and whether he would entertain a return to politics. The Liberal Democratic Party won a record number of seats in last year’s general election.
The former leader has not decided where he will work next, but allies say he is considering a job in artificial intelligence. Mr Clegg last year criticized former chancellor Rishi Sunak for focusing on the technology’s risks rather than its opportunities, and opposed regulation of AI.
Mr Clegg is thought to be more in agreement with another former prime minister, Tony Blair, who has become one of the most prominent evangelists of AI’s potential to improve public services. “I think we’ve wasted a huge amount of time going down a blind alley, assuming that this technology is going to wipe out humanity and we’re all going to get beaten up by robots with glowing red eyes,” Clegg said in September. .
Friends said Mr Clegg was open to work opportunities in the public and private sectors and hoped to return to London in 2022 and remain in Europe. His wife, Miriam, is known to have her own political ambitions and recently founded a think tank in London. her native Spain.
Mr Clegg was knighted in 2018 for his political and public achievements, but was heavily criticized when he became Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications later that year.
At the time, he was a key supporter of the referendum campaign and part of a powerful Remain group of former politicians who lobbied to stop Brexit.
Explaining the reason for his sudden withdrawal from the fight, Mr Clegg wrote in the Guardian that he should quit as soon as possible once he decided to join a Silicon Valley company and move to the US.
Nevertheless, the decision to take on this high-profile role came at a time when Mehta was struggling to deal with mounting political pressure over issues such as fake news, data protection and government regulation. It turned out to be profitable.
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Mr. Clegg’s most recent stock sale was in November for a market value of just over $4 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but the exact total proceeds from the latest transaction have not yet been made public. .
He was promoted to Meta’s president of global affairs in 2022, reporting to founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That same year, Clegg split his time between England and California, relocating partly to London.
Ms Clegg wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday: I’m proud of the work I’ve done leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure innovation goes hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability, and new forms of governance. ”
As Liberal Democrat leader, he managed to propel his party to power in 2010 in a coalition with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party, but took responsibility for the party’s defeat in the 2015 general election and was replaced as leader five years later. resigned. He called the charge “incalculably devastating and unkind.” More than he feared.
He lost his seat in the 2017 general election and subsequently said he had “no desire to sit in an unreformed House of Lords”.
Mr. Mehta has been contacted for comment.
