Peter Thiel, the tech investor and conservative provocateur who has advised Mark Zuckerberg for nearly two decades at Facebook parent Meta Platforms, will step down from the company’s board after Meta’s annual shareholder meeting in May.
Mr Thiel, 54, who became a director in 2005 after an early investment in Facebook, plans to increase his political support of former President Donald Trump’s agenda during the 2022 election and doesn’t want his political activities to be a distraction for Facebook, according to a person close to Mr Thiel.
His focus will be on backing Blake Masters, JD Vance and others who advance the Trump agenda, the person added, referring to Republican candidates for US Senate.
“Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions,” Mr Zuckerberg said. “He has served on our board for almost two decades, and we’ve always known that at some point he would devote his time to other interests.”
Mr Thiel helped Mr Trump to win the presidential election in 2016 by donating money and speaking on his behalf at the Republican National Convention. When Mr Trump became president, Mr Thiel worked on his transition team while nominating colleagues to fill government positions, including former Thiel Capital chief of staff Michael Kratsios, who served as the chief technology officer of the White House until last year. Mr Thiel has continued to support Mr Trump while meeting with members of the Republican Party and members of the far-right in recent years.
Mr Thiel’s departure will mark the end of one of the most productive - and harshly criticised - partnerships between a chief executive and an investor in all of business. Mr Thiel has been a close adviser to Mr Zuckerberg ever since the duo met through Napster co-founder Sean Parker, when Facebook was still just a social network for college campuses. Mr Thiel was instrumental in shaping Mr Zuckerberg’s ethos during the early days of Facebook and its relentless pursuit of growth.
That relationship continued even as Mr Thiel became more and more controversial in the technology industry, and became a frequent target for Facebook critics and unhappy employees.
Mr Thiel, who is also a co-founder and chairman of Palantir Technologies, was known to advise Mr Zuckerberg on political issues. He was among those reportedly encouraging the chief executive not to fact-check political advertisements in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, a move that many believe benefited Mr Trump. He also joined a dinner with Mr Zuckerberg and Mr Trump at the White House in 2019.
Many Facebook employees were upset with Mr Thiel’s role in backing Mr Trump in 2016 given the former president’s stance on immigration, and allegations of sexism and racism against then-candidate Mr Trump. But Mr Zuckerberg defended Mr Thiel and his role on Facebook’s board in an internal post to employees in October 2016. “We can’t create a culture that says it cares about diversity and then excludes almost half the country because they back a political candidate,” he wrote at the time.
Mr Thiel was one of the first venture capitalists to see the potential in Mr Zuckerberg’s vision. He became the first outside investor in Facebook when he lent the then-Harvard undergraduate student $500,000 in 2004.
The bet validated Mr Thiel’s instincts and acclaim as an investor but it had the potential to be far more lucrative. He sold most of his stake in 2012 through a prearranged stock-trading plan at an average price of less than $20 a share.
Those share sales generated more than $1.1 billion in proceeds for the billionaire, before taxes. Had he maintained his stake at its pre-IPO level however, his holding in Meta would now be worth ten times as much.
Mr Masters, a former student of Mr Thiel’s who co-wrote Zero to One with him, is running for Senate as a Republican from Arizona. Mr Masters still oversees Mr Thiel’s personal investment vehicle, Thiel Capital.
Mr Vance, who previously invested on behalf of Mr Thiel, is running for the Senate as a Republican from Ohio who is a “conservative outsider.” Mr Vance is best known for his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy and is campaigning on promises to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and push back against gun laws.
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
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Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
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The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre V10
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FINAL RESULT
Sharjah Wanderers 20 Dubai Tigers 25 (After extra-time)
Wanderers
Tries: Gormley, Penalty
cons: Flaherty
Pens: Flaherty 2
Tigers
Tries: O’Donnell, Gibbons, Kelly
Cons: Caldwell 2
Pens: Caldwell, Cross
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
