Endeavor has hired Matt Kaplan as vice president of government relations to lead government affairs across Endeavor’s businesses, including WME. 

In the new role, Kaplan will lead Endeavor’s policy, political and civic-related priorities, working closely with each business to determine and execute annual policy priorities. He will support initiatives on behalf of WME and its clients, including AI legislative protections and advising talent with their political engagements such as the presidential campaign.

Following the 2023 acquisition of Ross Yoon, WME opened a D.C. office and will be hosting a White House Correspondents Dinner event on Thursday in partnership with Puck and Snap. 

Kaplan was most recently director of public policy at Meta and was appointed the treasurer for Meta PAC. Prior to Meta, he led public policy and strategic initiatives at Instacart and served on the policy team at Lyft.

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Kaplan brings a wealth of political experience from his work for elected officials in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives, notably serving under Senator Sherrod Brown, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He has additionally worked across several presidential and congressional campaigns, and was appointed to the Innovation Policy Committee for the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign. 

Kaplan’s hiring is well-timed with a near certain rematch of 2020’s race between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden on the horizon. Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, is running for a second term despite having been impeached twice and indicted in several states on felony counts including falsifying business records, mishandling classified documents, conspiracy and racketeering.