Joe Lockhart was White House press secretary during Bill Clinton’s indelible Monica Lewinsky years, and next month, in a testament to Facebook’s increasingly significant presence on the world stage, Mr. Lockhart will become that heralded company’s VP of global communications.
For the new gig, Lockhart is saying goodbye to his present post as managing director of Glover Park Group, a communications firm he helped establish, and which has represented the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo. But Lockhart isn’t the only D.C. heavy-hitter to recently bolster Facebook’s ranks. Lockhart is joining two very recent hires with close ties to the Washington scene: Joel Kaplan and Myriah Jordan, FB’s newly minted lobbyists. Kaplan was the White House deputy chief of staff under the last Bush while Jordan, as listed in her LinkedIn, worked in the same White House as a Bush Deputy General Counsel and Special Assistant to the President for Policy.
If it seems Facebook is gearing up for treacherous times, it’s likely due to the fact that the company’s incredible growth — it has over 600 million users — and projected-for-the-fall IPO is sure to make some very hefty demands of the current management. It’s speculated that the impending IPO will place the company’s value at a figure upwards of $100 billion dollars. And finally, the company can’t seem to stay out of the spotlight of criticism and praise. Blame it on its rough-handling of user privacy and its innovation.
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http://allthingsd.com/20110614/facebook-hires-former-white-house-press-secretary-joe-lockhart/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56978.html#ixzz1PNxR9YRg