- Mark Zuckerberg has met his fair share of foreign leaders over the years.
- But a former Facebook executive said Zuckerberg’s meetings didn’t always go according to plan.
- Sarah Wynn-Williams detailed her experience working for Zuckerberg in her memoir, “Careless People.”
Social snafus were a common occurrence when Mark Zuckerberg, met with world leaders, a former Facebook executive wrote in her new memoir.
Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Meta — then called Facebook — from 2011 to 2017. The former New Zealand diplomat and international lawyer was the company’s director of global public policy.
In her new book, “Careless People,” published Tuesday, Wynn-Williams recounted what happened on meetings and trips with Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg did not want to talk to New Zealand’s prime minister
Wynn-Williams said the first assignment she received after joining Facebook in July 2011 was to arrange for a visit by then-New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to Facebook’s headquarters in California.
Initially, Wynn-Williams assumed Zuckerberg would be hosting Key but was told otherwise.
“People don’t openly laugh, but they come close. It’s made very clear to me that Mark has no interest in policy or politics — that’s Sheryl’s world — and specifically no interest in meeting the prime minister of New Zealand,” Wynn-Williams wrote, referencing Facebook’s COO at the time, Sheryl Sandberg.
Wynn-Williams said Zuckerberg refused to meet with Key even when the New Zealand leader was standing right in front of him. Zuckerberg approached the pair while Wynn-Williams was hosting Key in the office, seemingly unaware of who Key was.
“Hi Mark — did you want to meet the New Zealand prime minister?” Wynn-Williams said she asked Zuckerberg then.
“No. I already said I definitely didn’t want to do that,” he replied, before he was told by Wynn-Williams that Key was standing beside her.
Wynn-Williams said that Zuckerberg was taken aback by Key’s presence, then shook hands with him. She then pleaded with the Facebook founder to have a “quick word” with Key.
“Mark makes what could generously be called polite conversation with the prime minister, if he weren’t so transparently annoyed. The effort is felt by everyone,” Wynn-Williams wrote.
A ‘nervous and sweaty’ Zuckerberg
Wynn-Williams wrote in her book that Zuckerberg was “nervous and sweaty” when he met with then-Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 and then-South Korea President Park Geun-hye in 2013.
“Of course, this is the same man who’s shown absolutely no interest in policy issues or countries outside the US since I arrived at Facebook. Or almost no interest,” Wynn-Williams wrote.
While briefing Zuckerberg on meeting protocols for a trip to South Korea in 2014, Wynn-Williams said Zuckerberg treated it “like a weird goofing-off session.”
Wynn-Williams said that Zuckerberg started showing off his “fake gangsta handshakes” when she tried to teach him how to greet South Korea’s president with a bow.
“He crosses his arms like the Kangol-hat-era LL Cool J and rocks his body from side to side hip-hop style, before moving to a series of fist bumps, high fives, and backward low fives,” Wynn-Williams wrote.
Zuckerberg was left alone onstage after Colombia’s president left a joint media appearance early
In January 2015, Zuckerberg met with then-Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos to talk about Internet.org, an initiative by Facebook to give developing countries free internet access.
But Zuckerberg’s meeting with Santos started on the wrong foot. Wynn-Williams said that Zuckerberg did not read his briefing materials and arrived late to the meeting.
“When Mark does finally arrive, we’re marched upstairs to the president’s office. No one acknowledges our lateness, but it is clearly understood and extremely uncomfortable,” she wrote.
When Santos talked about making peace with the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Wynn-Williams said Zuckerberg appeared “flustered, with the wide eyes of a man who has not read his brief.”
Wynn-Williams said Santos was noncommittal when Zuckerberg suggested adding more Colombian government sites to Internet.org’s app.
Zuckerberg’s media event with Santos following their meeting, which was supposed to run for an hour and a half, ended up lasting less than half an hour.
Santos left abruptly, Wynn-Williams wrote, and Zuckerberg was left alone onstage.
Zuckerberg’s security detail accidentally shoved Guatemala’s president during a summit in Panama
Wynn-Williams said she pitched Zuckerberg on attending the Summit of the Americas in Panama in April 2015 to promote Internet.org to foreign leaders.
Zuckerberg was popular at the summit, and Wynn-Williams said they found themselves being “sucked into a vortex of people.” That development prompted Zuckerberg’s security detail to try to clear a path for him to get to his next meeting, per Wynn-Williams’ account.
“As his bodyguard forcefully shoves a group of men to the side, a plaintive voice cuts through: ‘But, but, but … I’m the president of Guatemala,'” Wynn-Williams wrote.
“Mark looks at me like, What’s the diplomatic protocol after you’ve shoved the president of Guatemala? And before I can say anything, I see the smile playing on his lips,” she added. “That’s definitely not the diplomatic response, and everyone else sees it too.”
Zuckerberg’s failed attempt to meet China’s leader
In November 2016, Wynn-Williams tried to create a “spontaneous encounter” between Zuckerberg and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Lima, Peru.
To engineer a chance meeting, Wynn-Williams wrote that she arranged for Zuckerberg’s keynote speech to take place before Xi’s. She also secured a dressing room for Zuckerberg next to Xi’s.
But things didn’t go according to plan. Zuckerberg ended up getting blocked from Xi’s view by the Chinese leader’s security detail, Wynn-Williams wrote.
“It’s a phalanx of men, in identical gray uniforms, marching in formation past us. Mark stares in disbelief, mouth open. They just keep coming, dozens and dozens of them,” she added.
Xi’s men formed a “human Chinese wall” between Xi and Zuckerberg’s dressing rooms, Wynn-Williams wrote. The men only dispersed after Xi entered his room.
“Uh, I guess that pull-aside isn’t going to happen,” Zuckerberg told his staff, per Wynn-Williams’ account.
When approached for comment about Wynn-Williams’ book, a spokesperson for Meta told Business Insider that she was “fired for poor performance and toxic behavior” in 2017.
“This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” the spokesperson said.
Representatives for Zuckerberg at Meta did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
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