Before his involvement in Diplomacy Labs, Ashraf Zeitoon was head of public policy for Facebook in the Middle East and North Africa.
“It was an unbelievable experience to understand the impact that technology and digital media has had on the world, and especially on the Middle East and North Africa,” he said.
One of the key takeaways from the role was Facebook’s approach to innovation. He learned not to linger on ideas that do not fly. “Anything that doesn’t work, don’t get fixated on it… move fast onto something else,” he said of the approach.
Zeitoon said one of the highlights of the role was attending last year’s meeting between Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Facebook Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg in Silicon Valley.
“That was in all honesty a significant meeting, to see two tremendous figures with tremendous vision coming together, and hitting it off… People from two different worlds coming in, and being so aligned,” Zeitoon said.
“For me, I think it was one of the highlights of my time there. And I believe that there are significant positives from it, whether for the company Facebook or for Saudi Arabia.”
Highlights of working at Facebook
Highlights of working at Facebook
