Exclusive: Meta adds Dina Powell McCormick, Patrick Collison to board
Dina Powell McCormick, a prominent banking executive and former Republican official, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison are joining Meta's board, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's part of a broader effort by Meta to expand its board to include more global business experts. The appointments also come as the company looks to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Powell McCormick previously served as deputy national security adviser to President Donald Trump in his first term and served as assistant secretary of state for State Secretary Condoleezza Rice under President George W. Bush.
State of play: Powell McCormick is joining Meta for the first time. Collison was formerly part of Meta's Advisory Group.
Both appointments take effect April 15.
Current Meta board members include a slew of global business and tech experts, such as Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen, DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.
Between the lines: Both Powell McCormick and Collison have experience working with small and medium-sized businesses globally, a group that Meta relies on heavily for ad revenue.
Powell McCormick spent 16 years in senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs and led the company's 10,000 Small Businesses initiative. She is currently vice chair, president and head of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, a powerful merchant bank based in Chicago. She is married to U.S. Sen. David McCormick (R-Pa.).
Collison is the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, a lucrative fintech company that provides businesses payment processing and business management tools. He is also a co-founder of the Arc Institute, a biomedical research organization.
What they're saying:"Patrick is deeply committed to expanding economic opportunity, and Dina has a long career advocating for economic development and supporting entrepreneurs. Their perspective will be extremely valuable to businesses that rely on our services to grow," Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.
"Between WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, Meta is one of the internet's most important platforms for businesses. I look forward to helping them navigate the abundant opportunities of the coming years," Collison said.
"I'm excited to bring my experience in finance, government and economic development to support the people and entrepreneurs who use Meta's services," Powell McCormick said.
The big picture: Meta has pushed to make further inroads with Republicans ahead of a landmark antitrust trial beginning Monday.
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Conine also concludes that since tuition is no longer being fully covered, a slightly less expensive college decision may not keep students in the state anymore. Stacy Miller, college and career coordinator at Las Vegas Academy, says she's been seeing a lot of students going out of state for college. 'For some of our students, it's not enough to keep them in state,' Miller told The Nevada Independent in an interview. 'Especially because some of the out of state schools or the private schools are going to give them much more monetary incentive to go to their schools.' Possible funding solutions Over the years, the Millennium Scholarship became slightly harder to receive. Students now need to have a 3.25 GPA coming out of high school, or they have to get a 1070 on the SAT or a 21 on the ACT. When the scholarship was first signed into law, students only needed a 3.0 GPA. 'If we had a magic wand, we would try to return the scholarship to its original purpose, focused on the best and brightest,' said Conine, who argues that would better retain students. 'It would get more money to a much smaller group of students.' However, Maggie Carlton, a former longtime lawmaker and member of the Nevada State Board of Education, disagrees with making the scholarship more difficult to earn because the 'best and brightest' will already be receiving scholarships from other universities. 'They're going to get two or three scholarships, and these other kids aren't going to get any,' Carlton said. 'Sometimes they don't do great in high school, but once they hit college, they hit their stride. They find a passion.' Doñate also disagrees with Conine's idea to raise eligibility standards to save the Millennium Scholarship. When Doñate was pursuing his master's degree, he went to the University of Maryland, where he learned of the Maryland Promise Scholarship and how that's been funded. 'The kids that grew up in the state, if they earned good grades … then we are going to do everything in our power to support those students … regardless of the … socioeconomic background that they're experiencing,' Doñate said. 'That's what the Maryland Promise Scholarship does. That's why Maryland ranks as one of the top states in education.' The Maryland Promise Scholarship is funded through private and public partnerships. Donors can either give their donation up front for the scholarship to use or put it in a bank account and let it generate more money for future generations. 'We should be doing that same model here,' Doñate said. 'We should allow private companies to be able to contribute directly to it, while also ensuring that we're also investing in ourselves.' Doñate also believes that cannabis taxes should have been used to help fund the Millennium Scholarship — but they're already designated to help K-12 schools. When Carlton was first advocating for the Millennium Scholarship to pass through the Legislature in 1999, she said she felt the scholarship should only be available to students entering the medical field. However, she said she's glad lawmakers made it a universal scholarship for any student to earn. 'Take the literary arts. Do a journalism class. Take history. Just become a more rounded person and just more educated,' Carlton said. 'Sometimes that's all they need … It isn't necessarily the degree that matters.' Changes Conine notes that if changes do come to the scholarship, they have to be intentional since families plan around receiving it and Nevadans shouldn't be surprised if changes arise. 'Like any other major program, you have to have a period of transition,' Conine said. 'If they know that in five years the Millennium Scholarship is only going to support this group of students, they can plan for it.' Doñate planned to introduce a bill this session that included making changes to the Millennium Scholarship, but decided to wait until the 2027 legislative session. The intent of his bill would have allowed students who aren't taking the required 12-15 credits to remain eligible for the scholarship. Currently, students could lose access to the scholarship funds if their course load drops below the required number of credits per semester. Doñate lost his scholarship because he had to work full time while finishing school, which meant he was only able to take nine to 10 credits per semester instead of 12 to 15. 'I lost eligibility, not because I wasn't graduating on time, not because I didn't have a good GPA, but because I did not meet the threshold of what they determined to be full time versus part time,' Doñate said. 'That was erroneous, and there are other students that fall into that situation, and I think it's a false promise from the state, where we tell them they have earned their spot because of good grades, and we want to keep them here, and then we kick them off the system.' Despite the funding issues, Doñate and Carlton believe the Millennium Scholarship should continue to be funded without making it harder to receive nor minimizing the amount students get. 'If we value it, and we really value education, and not just K through 12, and not just for some kids, but for all kids … then we find the money to fund it,' Carlton said. ___ This story was originally published by The Nevada Independent and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
