By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Meta has named three new members to its board of directors, including Dana White, the Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive who played a key role in the reelection of his longtime friend, President-elect Donald Trump.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced White’s appointment — along with Charlie Songhurst, a tech investor who has been advising Meta on artificial intelligence, and John Elkann, CEO of Exor, a holding company that owns several automotive and other brands — in a Facebook post Monday. “We have massive opportunities ahead in AI, wearables, and the future of social media, and our board will help us achieve our vision,” Zuckerberg said.

The new additions bring the social media giant’s board to 13 directors, including Zuckerberg.

White’s appointment is particularly notable as it comes amid a broader apparent ideological shift to the right within Meta’s top ranks, and as Zuckerberg seeks to improve his relationship with Trump before the president-elect takes office later this month.

White stumped for Trump on the 2024 campaign trail, praised him at the Republican National Convention and walked alongside him at a November UFC match at Madison Square Garden following the election. White also used his connections to leverage appearances for Trump on friendly, right-leaning podcasts with millions of young, male listeners, although the UFC boss told the New Yorker in November that he, “want[s] nothing to do with politics” anymore.

White is also a leader of one of Zuckerberg’s favorite pastimes: competitive fighting. Zuckerberg has sparred with UFC professionals; in November of 2023, he tore his ACL training for an MMA fight. Zuckerberg also agreed to cage fight X owner Elon Musk, although that battle never materialized.

“I love social media. And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies,” White said in an Instagram post announcing his appointment to the board.

Last week, Meta’s President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, the company’s top policy executive, announced he was stepping down and passing the baton to his deputy, Joel Kaplan, one of Meta’s most prominent Republican leaders. Kaplan, who held several key roles, including deputy chief of staff for policy, in President George W. Bush’s White House before joining Meta in 2011, is “clearly the right person for the right job at the right time,” Clegg said in his announcement.

Meta has said Zuckerberg wants to take an “active role” in tech policy conversations with the incoming Trump administration. Like other CEOs, Zuckerberg met with Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort following the election and Meta donated $1 million to his inaugural fund.

In recent years, Meta also rolled back some election-related content moderation efforts, such as allowing users to post claims of voter fraud and political ads that question the outcome of the 2020 election — a move welcomed by Republicans who had accused the company of “censoring” conservative voices. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee over the summer, Zuckerberg also stated that the Biden administration had “pressured” Meta to “censor” content during the pandemic, a statement that was quickly used by Trump to once again promote the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

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CNN’s Liam Reilly contributed to this report.