Peter Thiel to step down from Facebook's board

Peter Thiel, one of Facebook's longest-serving and most controversial board members, plans to step down from the company's board later this year, the company said Monday.

Thiel, an early investor in Facebook, has served on the board of the company, now known as Meta (FB), since 2005, one year after the social network launched. He will serve as a board director until Meta's annual shareholders meeting, at which point he will not stand for re-election. The company has not yet announced a date for the meeting, which usually occurs in May.

Thiel, 54, long a polarizing figure in Silicon Valley, co-founded PayPal (PYPL) and data-analytics firm Palantir Technologies, and is a partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund. In addition to Facebook, he was an early backer of a number of other prominent tech firms, including LinkedIn and Yelp (YELP).