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When Amazon President (AMZN) Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO earlier this month and wasted no time getting into space, some may have wondered when the Facebook CEO (FB) Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly leaving the tech giant he founded.
In fact, Zuckerberg is already starting to prepare for his own release, says Cecilia Kang, New York Times tech reporter and co-author of a new Facebook insider account titled “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination.” .
Kang, whose book is based on interviews with 400 people in and around Facebook, told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview that Zuckerberg aspires to follow the path of philanthropy taken by the former CEO of Microsoft (MSFT). , Bill Gates, whom Zuckerberg sees as a mentor. But the current array of challenges on Facebook will make it difficult for Zuckerberg to leave “anytime soon,” Kang said.
“We see him start to plant the seeds,” she said. “We got this idea from talking to people who spoke directly to Mark about his real ambitions to sort of emulate the path that Bill Gates took.”
Responding to Kang’s remarks, a Facebook spokesperson said, “Mark Zuckerberg has no intention of resigning.
Zuckerberg, 37, in 2015 co-founded the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative philanthropic organization alongside his wife, Priscilla Chan, and both are co-CEOs. The organization, headquartered a 10-minute drive north of Palo Alto, focuses on fighting disease, improving education and helping local communities.
The Chan-Zuckerberg initiative replicates the model proposed by Gates with the creation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which Gates and his ex-wife Melinda Gates lead as co-chairs. This organization was launched in 2000, the same year Gates resigned as CEO, but eight years before he left the company’s board of directors.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Kang said Zuckerberg’s philanthropic activities offered a view of his life after Facebook.
“We are already seeing this with the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative,” Kang said. “He spoke to Bill Gates – who is his mentor – for advice.”
But Kang acknowledged that urgent Facebook issues will likely keep Zuckerberg in the business for the foreseeable future. While the pandemic has generated record profits and strong user growth, it has also sparked a growing desire in Washington DC for a regulatory crackdown on the company.
In recent weeks, the company has faced a lawsuit from former President Donald Trump for alleged censorship and an allegation by President Joe Biden that social media platforms are “killing people” with the spread of disinformation on vaccines. After a response from Facebook, Biden returned to the criticisms.
“I think Facebook has so many issues to deal with right now,” she said. “[Zuckerberg] just can’t walk away from the start. “
“I also think he’s incredibly curious about technology and incredibly competitive,” she adds. “That he would hate to see the next thing take over Facebook.”
“It will be very difficult for him to quit his day job anytime soon,” she said.
Kang joined The New York Times after a decade at the Washington Post, after stints with the San Jose Mercury and the Dow Jones.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Kang explained that Zuckerberg had concentrated power under himself during the Trump era, as the former president tested the company’s policies on hate speech and data privacy. So far, he hasn’t given up that extra power, she said.
“I really believe Facebook is an incarnation of Mark Zuckerberg, and it continues to do so and it doesn’t look like it’s really letting go of that control in any way,” she says.
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