Meta on Monday said billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel will retire from its board of directors at the 2022 annual shareholder meeting.
Thiel has served on the board since April 2005, shortly after the company was founded in 2004. The New York Times reported that he will be focusing more on the November midterm elections.
“It has been a privilege to work with one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. Mark Zuckerberg’s intelligence, energy, and conscientiousness are tremendous. His talents will serve Meta well as he leads the company into a new era,” Thiel said in a release.
The remaining board members include its CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Peggy Alford, executive vice president of global sales at PayPal; Marc L. Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz; Drew Houston, cofounder and CEO of Dropbox; Sheryl K. Sandberg, Meta COO; Tony Xu, cofounder and CEO of DoorDash; as well as other longtime execs at Meta, Estée Lauder and McKinsey.
“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he has done for our company — from believing in us when few others would, to teaching me so many lessons about business, economics, and the world,” Zuckerberg said in the release. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions. 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. I’m grateful he’s served on our board for as long as he has, and I wish him the best in his journey ahead.”