Early DC Facebook hire departs

One of Facebook’s earliest hires in Washington, Tim Sparapani, has left the social giant’s Beltway lobbying team for undisclosed reasons.

Sparapani had served as Facebook’s director of public policy since 2009, when he joined Adam Conner, the only other Facebook employee in Washington at the time. Conner remains in his post. Sparapani arrived at Facebook after serving for years as the senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. His hire at Facebook marked an important pickup for the company, which even in its early days in Washington faced the threat of privacy regulation from Capitol Hill. Catherine Martin, another Facebook in-house lobbyist, remains on a leave of absence and was removed as lobbyist on public records, according to the company’s second quarter lobbying filing. The firm continues to list Joel Kaplan and Myriah Jordan, along with Conner, as registered lobbyists, according to public filings.