In an effort to expand its power base in the nation’s capital, Facebook has hired Joel Kaplan, an executive vice president at the Texas utility giant Energy Future Holdings, to head the company’s office in Washington.

It is a significant coup for the fast-growing social network, which is seeking to increase its influence among policy makers and lawmakers.

Over the last few years, Facebook has started to fill its ranks with executives with deep ties to Washington. Its current chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, was a former chief of staff to a Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration. And its general counsel, Ted Ullyot, was a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

With the addition of Mr. Kaplan, a former member of President George W. Bush’s White House staff, Facebook will likely strengthen its ties to Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“It’s imperative that we scale our policy team so that we have the resources in place to demonstrate to policy makers that we are industry leaders in privacy, data security and safety,” Facebook said in a statement on Thursday.

In some ways, Mr. Kaplan’s move from the private-equity-owned Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU, symbolizes the emergence of social media as the new “new thing.”

It also shows how Silicon Valley and venture capital have re-established themselves as the hottest movers in the deal world, while the private equity industry has lost some of its luster.

When Mr. Kaplan left the Bush administration, he took a job working for private equity firms at Energy Future Holdings. In 2007, at the market peak, a group including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs paid $44 billion for the company.

Today, those private equity firms are sitting on billions of dollars of losses. Energy Future Holdings has struggled with persistently low natural gas prices and a heavy debt burden. The promise of an initial public offering for the company has been put off indefinitely.

As the staid Texas utility has suffered, Facebook, arguably the hottest company in America, has grown at a breakneck pace, and an I.P.O. is expected next year.

Mr. Kaplan served as the deputy chief of staff in the George W. Bush White House, helping to manage the administration’s policy agenda. At Energy Future Holdings, Mr. Kaplan was responsible for handling the company’s public policy and external affairs.

Facebook also announced on Thursday that it had hired Myriah Jordan, who recently served as general counsel to Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina.