Filings show that Nick Clegg made about $19 million from the sale of shares in Meta during his six-year tenure as the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The former British deputy prime minister sold $18.4m (£14.8m) worth of shares in the group before announcing on Thursday that he was leaving his role as chairman of global affairs and communications.
His total salary has not been disclosed to Meta, but he still owns about 39,000 shares of the company, which is worth about $21 million at the current price.
He will be replaced by his deputy, Joel Kaplan, known as the most prominent conservative voice at the company as the former deputy chief of staff for policy under former President George W. Bush.
People close to Clegg said the decision to leave Meta was his own, although Kaplan had long been discussed as a possible successor if a Republican won the White House.
Speculation is rife about what the 57-year-old might do next and whether he might hope to return to politics. The Liberal Democrats won a record number of seats for the party in last year’s general election.
The former party leader has not decided where he will work next, although aides say he wants a job in the field of artificial intelligence. Clegg has argued against regulation of AI, criticizing former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for focusing on the threats rather than the opportunities of the technology last year.
Clegg is understood to be more in agreement with Tony Blair, another former prime minister who has become one of the most prominent campaigners of AI’s potential to improve public services. In September, Clegg said: “I think we wasted a lot of time going down blind alleys, assuming that this technology would destroy humanity and we would all be captured by robots with glowing red eyes.”
Friends say Clegg is open to job opportunities in the public or private sector and wants to remain in Europe after moving back to London in 2022. His wife Miriam is known to have political ambitions of her own and has recently founded a think tank. His home country is Spain.
Clegg, who was knighted for political and public service in 2018, was heavily criticized when he took on the role as Facebook’s vice president for global affairs and communications later that year.
At the time he was a leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign and was part of a high-powered pro-Left group of former politicians lobbying to stop Brexit.
Explaining the reason for his sudden exit from the fight, Clegg wrote in the Guardian that, once he had signed up to join the Silicon Valley company and decided to relocate to the US, he wanted to leave as soon as possible. Could.
Nonetheless, his decision to accept the high-profile role, at a time when Meta was struggling to deal with increasing political pressure over issues including fake news, data protection and government regulation, has proven extremely attractive.
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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings show that Clegg’s most recent sale of shares was in November at a market value of more than $4 million, although the exact gross proceeds of the latest transaction have not yet been made public.
He was promoted to president of global affairs at Meta in 2022 – reporting directly to founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. Clegg partially relocated to London that year, dividing time between Britain and California.
Clegg wrote in a Post On Facebook Thursday: “This has truly been the adventure of a lifetime! I’m proud of the work I’ve been able to do leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure that innovation can go hand-in-hand with increased transparency and accountability and new forms of governance.
As Lib Dem leader he managed to bring his party to power through a coalition with David Cameron’s Conservative Party in 2010, but resigned as leader five years later, taking the blame for his party’s 2015 election defeat. delivered, which he described as “extremely crushing and cruel”. As much as he feared.
He lost his seat in the 2017 general election and later said that he “never had any desire to sit in the unreformed House of Lords”.
Meta has been contacted for comment.