TikTok Taps Former Boeing Top Lobbyist as Head of Public Policy

Ziad “Z” Ojakli, former head of the Boeing Co.’s and Ford Motor Co.’s lobbying operations, said Tuesday he was taking a job at TikTok as head of public policy for the Americas.

Ojakli also previously ran congressional relations for the George W. Bush administration and the in-house lobbying operation for SoftBank. He said in an email that it was in the role at SoftBank that he first had a “front-row seat,” back in 2017, to the TikTok app that went on to become “a global sensation.”

He left Boeing last December as then-new CEO Kelly Ortberg remade the lobbying team ...