Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg clarified his eyebrow-raising decision to bring Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White onto his company's board of directors Friday on "The Joe Rogan Experience."
White is one of President-elect Donald Trump's closest non-political allies and his joining with Meta signals a culture shift within the company.
"He's awesome. I've been talking to him for a while about that," Zuckerberg said about White adding that his unique position in Meta allows him to make decisions without asking permission. "I'm not worried about losing my job, because I control the majority of the voting in the company, so I actually get to use our board to have the smartest people who I can get to have around me to help work on these problems," he said.
Zuckerberg praised White's ability to take what had previously been seen as a fringe sport to a household name. "It's got hundreds of millions of people viewing it. What Dana's done with the UFC is like one of the most legendary business stories, and the brand is beloved."
In November, Trump met with Zuckerberg signaling the two icons seeking to mend strained relationships after many years. Trump had previously accused the social media giant of interfering in the 2020 presidential election. The hiring of White sends word to other business and political leaders that Meta is focused on the future.
"I think part of what the conversation that I had with him around joining our board was, 'OK, we have a lot of governments and folks around the world putting a lot of pressure on our company, and we need some strong people who are going to basically help advise us on how to handle some of these situations,'" Zuckerberg said.
This week Meta gave further notice to the world that it was making a giant culture shift when it announced it was eliminating the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion programs effectively acknowledging that the practice is discrimination by another name. Zuckerberg said White's strength as a leader will help him navigate other politically charged issues.
"Running this company is not for the faint of heart. There's definitely a lot of pressure from all these different governments. I could spend all my time doing that, but I'm not even a politician. I just want to spend my time building things, right? So yeah, I think Dana's gonna be great," Zuckerberg said.