Sarah Friar joins OpenAI as its first CFO, while Kevin Weil is named Chief Product Officer amidst major leadership changes.
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| Former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar becomes OpenAI’s first CFO, with Kevin Weil taking on the role of CPO to drive future growth. |
San Francisco, June 10, 2024:
OpenAI announced on June 10, 2024 the appointment of Sarah Friar, former CEO of Nextdoor, as its inaugural Chief Financial Officer (CFO). This move is part of a broader reshuffling of the AI firm’s leadership team, which also includes the hiring of Kevin Weil as Chief Product Officer (CPO).
Friar brings extensive financial expertise to OpenAI, having previously served as CFO at Square and held board positions at Walmart. Her career includes significant roles at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Salesforce. Weil, a seasoned product executive, has a notable track record at major tech firms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In a statement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted the strategic importance of these appointments: "Sarah and Kevin bring a depth of experience that will enable OpenAI to scale our operations, set a strategy for the next phase of growth, and ensure that our teams have the resources they need to continue to thrive."
These appointments follow a period of significant changes at OpenAI, marked by the recent departure of co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever in May. Sutskever, a key figure in Altman's controversial firing and subsequent rehiring last November, was replaced by Jakub Pachocki, who previously served as OpenAI's Director of Research and led the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five.
OpenAI has also seen other notable exits, including founding member Andrej Karpathy in February. To stabilize its governance, the firm announced new board members in March: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment, and Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart.
With Friar and Weil joining the team, OpenAI aims to bolster its leadership as it navigates the complexities of the rapidly evolving AI landscape.