Dana White, president and CEO of UFC, is joining the board of Meta, one of three new directors announced today by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant.
The other two are John Elkann, who runs the Agnelli family investment company Exor, and Charlie Songhurst, a major tech investor and former top Microsoft executive.
“Dana, John and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables and the future of human connection,” said Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.
“I’ve never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta’s board.
I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future,” said Dana White. “I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level.”
Meta is investing heavily in Meta AI including the large language model LlaMA.
UFC is the world’s leading mixed martial arts organization and one of the most valuable and globally popular properties in all of sports. White is responsible for the overall strategic direction of its global business, which employs over 600 people across five continents. He has helped expand it to a global sport powerhouse with more than 40 live events a year in major arenas around the world, and broadcasting to over 975 million households across more than 170 countries.
Over the course of his career, Dana White has received numerous industry and business accolades for his impact and influence in sports. He’s an interesting addition to the Meta board at a time when live sports is the king of an otherwise fraying media ecosystem with big tech and social media jumping in.
Dana White is also quite close to Donald Trump introducing him at the Republican National Convention — at a time when tech titans have been trying to cozy up to the president-elect.
Exor is one of the largest European investment companies whose holdings include Ferrari, Stellantis, Christian Louboutin, Juventus Football Club and The Economist Group. Elkann worked for General Electric and Fiat Group, which merged with Chrysler, then with France’s PSA. In 2023, he founded Lingotto, an investment management company owned by Exor. He has also been investing in both early and late-stage ventures globally and launched the Italian Tech Week, now one of Europe’s most important tech conferences.
Songhurst is a technology investor who currently invests in more than 500 startups globally. He previously served as General Manager and Head of Global Corporate Strategy at Microsoft, focused on partnerships and M&A. As part of this role, he led the Yahoo and Skype acquisitions.
Before running Corporate Strategy, Charlie focused on the emergence of Google and the growth of the search industry.
Meta’s other current board members include Zuckerberg; Peggy Alford, former head of global sales at PayPal.; investor Marc L. Andreessen; John Arnold of Arnold Ventures; Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox; Nancy Killefer, former senior partner, McKinsey & Co.; attorney Robert M. Kimmitt of WilmerHale; Hock E. Tan, Broadcom president and CEO; Tracey T. Travis, EVP, Senior Adviser to the CEO, the Estée Lauder Companies; and Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash.