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Facebook hires Joe Lockhart

SAN FRANCISCO — Joe Lockhart, who helped build the press office during the second Clinton term in the White House, is joining Facebook.

A former TV reporter, Lockhart joins Facebook as vice president of communications and will manage the company’s corporate, policy and international communications team. He starts July 15 joining the social networking firm at a time when the company has found itself under increasing scrutiny over privacy concerns.

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He announced his departure to his firm with an email titled “Joe Lockhart wants to be friends on Facebook.”

An ability to handle crisis has long been Lockhart’s trademark and was put to the test in the last years of the Clinton presidency when he was often the person speaking to the press as the Monica Lewinsky news broke and during the impeachment proceedings. A 1998 profile in The Washington Post described him as “a mixture of hard-driving defense, provocative analysis and barbed humor.”

"Joe's arrival brings new skills and greater depth to our incredibly busy team,” said Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of global communications, marketing and public policy.

“His experience building and running a press office at the White House gives him particular appreciation for the demands of a global 24-hour news cycle and the challenges of responding effectively to intense scrutiny,” Schrage said. “His experience launching and scaling a communications firm will help us as we seek to build our team and continue to offer great opportunities for growth and professional development."

Lockhart has deep ties to Washington and is a veteran of political campaigns such as Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 bid, the 1988 Dukakis-Bentsen campaign, the 1984 Mondale-Ferraro campaign and former President Jimmy Carter’s reelection bid in 1980.

He worked briefly for Oracle’s Larry Ellison, but left in 2001 after six months.

Shortly thereafter, he founded the Glover Park Group, an independent communications firm in D.C. and New York. There, as managing partner, he has represented companies such as Visa, Microsoft and Yahoo among others.

Democrats and Republicans said the hire was a good move for Facebook.

“Joe is a fair and reasoned thinker and one of the best communications specialists in Washington,” said Greg Mueller, president of CRC Public Relations, a GOP public relations and corporate communications based in Alexandria. “From a Republican, center-right standpoint, Joe is someone we can and look forward to working with as the social media revolution marches on.”

“If there’s a hall of fame in D.C. for political operatives, Joe would be the first inductee,” said Chris Lehane, a political consultant who worked in the Clinton White House. “He is the type of hire that makes sense for the company. The company has the potential to tell incredible, good stories about its importance to democracy. Someone like Joe will get how to package why this company is important both for individual members of Congress and agencies but also for its larger brand.”

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Facebook has been grilled heavily by Washington lawmakers over concerns about online privacy. Lockhart’s experience working for former President Bill Clinton at the height of the Lewinsky scandal will prepare him for dealing with the intense scrutiny Facebook receives on the Hill.

“Anyone who’s been a White House spokesman for any period of time is battle-tested and well-prepared for more or less anything that happens to them in the rest of their lives,” said Bruce Mehlman, a partner at Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, Inc., which represents Yahoo, eBay and other major tech companies. “Lockhart is a serious and very capable guy who is familiar with Washington at its hottest and so clearly they wanted someone with his level of maturity and experience and toughness.”

Those who have worked with Lockhart said he’s well suited to working in a fast-paced organization that is under a lot of pressure. “He works really well across the spectrum of an organization, up and down the organizational chart,” said Kevin Madden, JDA Frontline, who was the first Republican brought into the Grover Park Group. “He has been in one of the most high pressured jobs in Washington. It has taught him to value and understand every angle of crisis or a policy situation. Even though he’s an advocate, he understands what the opposition is doing. Joe’s very decisive. He’s not one to hand wring or kick a problem down the road. In a fast-paced political environment, that’s an important attribute to have.”

Jennifer Martinez contributed to this report.


This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:17 p.m. on June 14, 2011.


Eric D. Schwerin
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