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Dana White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst to Join Meta Board of Directors

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MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Meta today announced that Dana White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst have been elected to the company’s board of directors.

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta, said, “Dana, John and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables and the future of human connection.”

“I’ve never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta’s board. I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future,” said Dana White, President and CEO of UFC®. “I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level.”

“I am honored to be able to contribute to the future of one of the most significant companies of the 21st century,” said John Elkann, CEO of Exor. “I look forward to bringing my global experience and long-term perspective to the board as Meta continues to shape and push the next frontiers of innovation and technology.”

“As part of Meta’s advisory group, I’ve seen firsthand the opportunities to scale new products and grow AI and enterprise capabilities, and I’m honored to be asked to join the board to further this work,” said Charlie Songhurst.

Dana White serves as President and CEO of UFC®, the world’s leading mixed martial arts organization, and one of the most valuable and globally popular properties in all of sports. White is responsible for the overall strategic direction of UFC’s global business, which employs over 600 people across five continents. Under White’s leadership, UFC has become a global sport powerhouse, producing more than 40 live events annually in some of the most prestigious arenas around the world, while broadcasting to over 975 million households across more than 170 countries. Over the course of his career, White has received numerous industry and business accolades for his impact and influence in sports.  Most recently, White was named one of the most influential figures in sports by Sports Illustrated (2023) and Sports Business Journal (2024), as well as one of the most influential executives in media by Variety (2024).

John Elkann is CEO of Exor, one of the largest European investment companies, controlled by the Agnelli family. He is also Executive Chair of Ferrari and Stellantis. He began his professional career in 2001 at General Electric as a member of the Corporate Audit Staff, with assignments in Asia, Europe and North America. In 2003, he joined the Fiat Group, and in 2004, he appointed Sergio Marchionne as its CEO, and together, they led the successful turnaround of the business. The company would later merge with Chrysler to form FCA and then with PSA in 2021 to create Stellantis. In 2009, Mr. Elkann established Exor with the purpose of “building great companies.” Its portfolio is principally made up of companies in which it is the largest or reference shareholder, such as Ferrari, Stellantis, CNH, Philips, Christian Louboutin, Juventus Football Club and The Economist Group among others. In 2023, Mr. Elkann founded Lingotto, an investment management company committed to long-term and principal investing, wholly owned by Exor. He has also been investing in both early- and late-stage ventures globally and launched the Italian Tech Week, now one of Europe’s most important tech conferences. Among his family’s philanthropic activities, Mr. Elkann is Chair of the Agnelli Foundation, a non-profit, independent social sciences research institute with a focus on education. He is also a board member of MoMA. Born in New York in 1976, Mr. Elkann obtained a scientific baccalauréat from Lycée Victor Duruy in Paris, France, and graduated from Politecnico di Torino, the Engineering School of Turin, Italy.

Charlie Songhurst is a technology investor who currently invests in more than 500 startups globally. He has extensive experience across enterprise SaaS, AI and deep tech. He previously served as General Manager and Head of Global Corporate Strategy at Microsoft, focused on partnerships and M&A. As part of this role, he led the Yahoo and Skype acquisitions. Before running Corporate Strategy, Charlie focused on the emergence of Google and the growth of the search industry. Charlie received a Bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.

Meta’s current board members are: Mark Zuckerberg; Peggy Alford, former Executive Vice President, Global Sales, PayPal Holdings, Inc.; Marc L. Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz; John Arnold, Co-Founder, Arnold Ventures; John Elkann, CEO of Exor; Drew Houston, Co-Founder and CEO, Dropbox, Inc.; Nancy Killefer, Retired Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Robert M. Kimmitt, Meta’s Lead Independent Director and Senior International Counsel at WilmerHale LLP; Charlie Songhurst; Hock E. Tan, President and CEO, Broadcom Inc.; Tracey T. Travis, Executive Vice President, Senior Adviser to the CEO, The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc.; Dana White, President and CEO, Ultimate Fighting Championship; and Tony Xu, Co-Founder and CEO, DoorDash, Inc.

About Meta

Meta is building the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology. 

Contacts

Investors:
Kenneth Dorell
investor@meta.com / investor.fb.com

Press:
Ashley Zandy
press@meta.com / about.fb.com/news/

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Simply announces compatibility with AI glasses from Meta

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NEW YORK, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Simply, the creative hobbies leader behind the market leading apps Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw, today announced compatibility with AI glasses from Meta.

 

The launch signals Simply’s next leap – from mobile and augmented reality into AI glasses – as part of its long–term vision to build a fully multimodal AI platform that connects physical creativity, digital experiences, and wearable interfaces.

After pioneering music learning through augmented reality with Simply Piano for Apple Vision Pro and Simply Piano for Android XR, Simply is now expanding its creative hobbies ecosystem into AI–powered wearables. The new integration with Simply Draw and AI glasses from Meta lets learners capture their drawing process in real time, generating AI–enhanced timelapses and shareable creative assets that showcase their creation. 

“This is an exciting step toward a new era for creativity,” said Yuval Kaminka, CEO and Co–Founder of Simply. “We believe that the way we experience the arts, learning, playing and creative expression at home will become fully contextual. AI glasses allow us to move closer to a true AI creative companion – a multimodal AI, one that understands what you’re doing and supports you in the moment.”

“AI glasses are becoming a natural extension of how we learn and create,” added Eliran Douenias, Head of Product Innovation at Simply. “Our products already enable immersive and virtual experiences with XR and spatial computing, now we’re adding AI glasses from Meta as the next interface – and it’s just the first of an exciting roadmap ahead.”

“Simply’s early move into the AI glasses space puts us ahead of the curve and positions us to lead in how wearables – specifically AI glasses – become part of everyday creative life,” said Douenias.

With this launch, Simply is expanding its platform for the AI era. The new compatibility with AI glasses from Meta enhances how learners see, capture, and share their creative process, with many more experiences to follow.

About Simply

Simply is the world’s leading AI creativity platform redefining how people learn and express themselves through music, arts, crafts, and more. Its award–winning apps – Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw – have empowered millions globally to pick up and develop fulfilling creative hobbies that last.

Contact info: eliran@hellosimply.com

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Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Hires James Smith as Managing Director

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LONDON, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (“LLCP”) announced today that James Smith has joined the Firm as a Managing Director in the Investment Management group. James will be based in LLCP’s London office.

Josh Kaufman, Head of Europe at LLCP, said, “We are thrilled to welcome James to LLCP. James adds valuable experience to the team within our core Business Services sector vertical. We look forward to the impact he will have as our European business and team continues to grow.”

James joins LLCP from Advent International where he was a senior member of the European Business & Financial Services team and participated in numerous successful transactions over his 12-year tenure. Prior to Advent, James worked at Bain & Company. James’ full biography can be found at https://www.llcp.com/team

About Levine Leichtman Capital Partners

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLC is a middle-market private equity firm with a 42-year track record of investing across various targeted sectors, including Business Services, Franchising & Multi-unit, Education & Training and Engineered Products & Manufacturing. LLCP utilizes a differentiated Structured Private Equity investment strategy, combining debt and equity capital investments in portfolio companies. LLCP believes that by investing in a combination of debt and equity securities, it offers management teams growth capital in a highly tailored, flexible investment structure that can be a more attractive alternative than traditional private equity.

LLCP’s global team of dedicated investment professionals is led by 9 partners who have worked at LLCP for an average of 20 years. Since inception, LLCP and its affiliates have managed approximately $18.5 billion of capital across nearly 20 investment funds and has invested in approximately 120 portfolio companies. LLCP currently manages $12.6 billion of assets and has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Media Contact: Isabel Moon, imoon@llcp.com

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Appian Advances AI in Process to Deliver Enterprise Outcomes at Scale

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New capabilities in agentic automation and AI-assisted spec-driven development transform complex work.

ORLANDO, Fla., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Appian [Nasdaq: APPN] today announced enhancements to the Appian Platform, including AI-assisted spec-driven development and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration for agents. By anchoring AI within processes, Appian eliminates the primary hurdles to AI value: fragmented data, and a lack of reliability and control. Process models provide the structure needed to deliver results safely, and at scale.

Advancements in AI agents enable more intelligent, coordinated work

AI agents in Appian are smarter, safer and more effective because they have better structure, context and guardrails. Appian is enhancing interoperability across its AI ecosystem. By adopting powerful standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP), Appian agents will be able to interface securely with external enterprise systems. Third party AI agents will have access to powerful Appian tools like data fabric which uniquely provides unified read-write access to enterprise data.

Appian is also advancing agent learning by providing users the ability to track agent performance, and then apply an agent’s memory across processes to improve decision making. Users will soon be able to expand on this by giving AI guidance on what objectives to optimize against and recommend improvements that can be applied safely.

Customer value

Global Excel Management, a worldwide healthcare risk management provider, uses Appian to transform claims processes with AI.

“As part of our digital transformation we are evolving our claims processes by transitioning from fragmented workflows to an enhanced level of operations using technological advancements enabled with AI features,” said Pascal Tanguay, SVP, Global Technology Services, Global Excel Management. “With Appian, our processes will be unified. From initial intake to adjudication, our advanced technology will reduce redundant tasks and lessen complexity for our team members. This ensures that our claims processes are consistent and completed more efficiently and accurately.”

Context gives agents a common vocabulary for business data

To support advanced agent capabilities, Appian is augmenting its industry-leading data fabric. Appian’s data fabric has been enhanced to provide a unified metadata model that gives agents clearer context about how information is structured and connected across systems.

Furthering its commitment to supporting industry-leading data platforms, Appian is launching a technology partnership with Snowflake. This unites Appian as the AI orchestration layer with Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, combining data aggregation, model training, and process orchestration to enable immediate business value. Direct MCP-enabled integration between Appian data fabric and Snowflake equips agents with deep enterprise context, and allows them to interact directly with Snowflake Cortex AI to drive intelligent, data-backed decisions.

“Enterprises don’t need more AI experiments, they need AI that delivers real business outcomes on governed data,” said Baris Gultekin, Vice President of AI, Snowflake. “By combining Appian’s process orchestration and data fabric with the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, we’re bringing intelligence directly into the flow of work. Together, we enable secure, enterprise-grade AI where agents can access trusted data through Cortex AI, act with context, and drive measurable impact across the business.”

AI-assisted spec-driven development

AI-assisted development has revolutionized coding, but mission-critical work needs more than fast, cheap code. Appian puts structure around AI-assisted development. Without that structure, AI-generated code can introduce compliance issues and technical debt instead of business value.

Appian is introducing AI-assisted spec-driven development. AI extracts rich specifications from legacy applications to create a clear visual plan. This plan helps visualize the UI, data models and process flows for rapid and iterative operational improvements. AI developer agents, operating under human supervision, complete tasks according to specifications, accelerating delivery and reducing rework.

New developer MCP servers will allow organizations to use their choice of AI development tools, such as Claude Code or Kiro to build and update Appian applications. Appian will support a wide range of AI models, enabling teams to work in the environments they prefer.

Together, these enhancements will deliver the speed and developer productivity of AI-assisted development, with enterprise-grade control.

“Appian Composer, Agents and Appian MCP servers enable trusted agentic process orchestration and application modernization,” said Mike Beckley, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Appian. “Composer complements Appian’s agentic orchestration and data fabric with new spec-driven development tools that are both conversational and iterative. Beneath the covers, Appian Composer is built on Appian’s new open MCP – a model-driven representation of your complete application estate—requirements, apps, data entities, logic, workflows, security/governance rules, integrations, and multi-object dependencies—now exposed as context for developers and agents to safely evolve and optimize.”

The advancements announced today were unveiled at Appian World 2026 and will be available in coming releases. Learn more at www.appian.com

About Appian

Appian provides process automation technology. We automate complex processes in large enterprises and governments. Our platform is known for its unique reliability and scale. We’ve been automating processes for 25 years and understand enterprise operations like no one else. For more information, visit appian.com. [Nasdaq: APPN]

Follow Appian: LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

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