The former Liberal Democrat leader will split his time between California, where he currently lives, and London. Clegg’s new executive role at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will require more travel and it is understood that Clegg sees London as a suitable base from which to visit Europe and Asia. The Financial Times, which first reported the move, said Clegg wanted to spend more time in the UK and mainland Europe for personal reasons, including a desire to be closer to his elderly parents. Clegg joined Meta in 2018 and moved with his family to California, but it was clear he wanted to return to Europe at some point, telling the FT last year that “his heart very much belongs 5,000 miles away”. Clegg’s wife, Miriam González Durántez, a senior international trade lawyer, has also referred to the vanished Europe in her Instagram posts, saying last year that she felt like “kissing the ground” after returning to her native Spain for the first time in 18 months. Clegg was promoted from his previous role as vice president of global affairs and communications in February. At the time, Zuckerberg said the role would put Clegg “on par” with himself and Sheryl Sandberg, who has since announced she is stepping down as CEO of the company. Before his promotion, Clegg played a prominent role in dealing with revelations last year by whistleblower Francis Haugen, who accused the Facebook owner of putting “astronomical profits before people”, harming children and destabilizing democracies. Clegg denied Haugen’s claim, based on internal documents, that Facebook promoted divisive content, saying advertisers would avoid a company that promoted such material. Speaking at a conference in November, he added that Facebook’s content was largely “babies, barbecues and barmitzvahs”, although documents disclosed by Haugen showed that researchers warned of “piecemeal” efforts to stop the spread of falsehoods about the presidential election of 2020 in the USA. Clegg has also taken a prominent role in explaining Meta’s shift to focus on the metaverse, the concept of virtual space where digital representations of people – avatars – interact at work and play, including announcing the creation of a $50m investment (£ 41 million). program to ensure that the metaverse is “responsibly” constructed. Meta faces a number of regulatory challenges in Europe, with government relations and politics firmly part of Clegg’s remit. The UK government is preparing to introduce a sweeping internet safety bill, while the EU is passing tough regulations in the form of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. Clegg’s decision comes as the head of Meta’s Instagram platform also prepares to move to London. Adam Mosseri is temporarily moving to the UK, where Meta employs 4,000 people across London, including a new office in the King’s Cross area. Meta’s head of marketing, Alex Schultz, has also moved to the UK. Other executives have loosened their physical ties to Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Naomi Gleit, Meta’s chief product officer, had moved to New York and that Chief Information Security Officer Guy Rosen had moved to Israel. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, has been a prominent advocate of flexible working during the coronavirus pandemic, saying half of the company’s 70,000 employees could be working from home within a decade. Meta declined to comment on Clegg’s story. In a statement, the company said: “Recent years have brought new possibilities around the ways we connect and work. We believe that how people work is far more important than where they work.”