OpenAI has announced that Sarah Friar is its new Chief Financial Officer, and Kevin Weil is its new Chief Product Officer.
In its most recent C-suite shake-up, the renowned AI institution has appointed Friar as its first-ever CFO. The organisation, technically a nonprofit AI research company, is developing a strategy to increase revenues from its enterprise-targeting AI products and services.
OpenAI stresses that the hires empower the organisation to continue advancing its mission by doubling down on its core strengths: conducting leading research and using it as the foundation to build and safely deploy AI products. By committing to these areas, OpenAI says it aims to maintain its position at the forefront of AI innovation while ensuring the responsible use of its technologies.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, commented:
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.”
More Information On Friar And Weil
Friar will oversee a finance team that supports OpenAI’s mission by ensuring continued investment in its core research capabilities and enabling the organisation to “scale to meet the needs of (its) growing customer base and the complex and global environment in which (it) is operating”, according to OpenAI’s press release.
Friar most recently served as CEO of Nextdoor. She was previously CFO at Square and worked at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Salesforce. She is a Board Member of Walmart and Consensys, a Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and Co-Chair of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, an integral component of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI).
“I’m honoured to join a team that is uniquely talented and mission-focused,” added Friar. “My goal is to help OpenAI continue excelling at what it does best—producing top-tier research and collaborating to maximise the benefits of AI tools for everyone.”
Weil will assume leadership of a product team at OpenAI, where he will leverage the organisation’s research to enhance products and services for consumers, developers, and enterprises.
Prior to this appointment, Weil was President of Product and Business at Planet Labs. His extensive experience also includes co-founding the Libra cryptocurrency and serving as VP of Product for Novi at Facebook, as well as VP of Product at Instagram, and SVP of Product at Twitter. In addition to his professional achievements, Weil is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and contributes his expertise to the boards of The Nature Conservancy and the Black Product Managers Network.
“The product team at OpenAI has set the pace for both breakthrough innovation and thoughtful deployment of AI products,” said Weil. “I am thrilled to be part of the next phase of growth as we continue to safely and responsibly build towards AGI.”
This C-Suite news arrives the same day Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership that included ChatGPT becoming integrated with Siri.
OpenAI’s C-Suite Changes
The recent reshuffle at OpenAI follows the departure of co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever in May. Jakub Pachocki, who previously led the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five, has stepped into the role.
Sutskever’s exit came after a tumultuous period which saw the brief firing and subsequent rehiring of Altman, during which Sutskever played a significant role. Despite initially supporting Altman’s dismissal, Sutskever later endorsed an employee-led initiative to reinstate him, expressing regret over his involvement in the board’s decision. Following Altman’s return, Sutskever was removed from the board, and his role within the company became uncertain.
Additionally, Andrej Karpathy, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher and one of OpenAI’s original members, left the company in February, while researcher Jan Leike joined Sutskever’s departure last month.
The saga around Altman’s hiring and firing also resulted in a significant upheaval of OpenAI’s board, which had been the catalyst for Altman’s removal.
OpenAI’s eight-person new board, aside from Altman, comprises seven new faces: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, ex-president of Sony Entertainment; Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart; Bret Taylor, former Salesforce co-CEO and current board chair of OpenAI; Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora; Larry Summers, economist and former president of Harvard; and Dee Templeton, who serves as a Microsoft-appointed board observer.
What Other OpenAI News Has Happened Recently?
Last month, OpenAI launched GPT-4o, a major (and free) ChatGPT upgrade that meant the model was significantly faster and could rapidly process images, audio, and text.
Announced during an OpenAI live stream by OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, GPT-4o was described as a “much faster” iteration of OpenAI’s famous ChatGPT product that enhances “capabilities across text, vision, and audio.”
Also in May, emails published in the US Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google suggest that Microsoft‘s investment in OpenAI was prompted by concerns about Google’s superior progress in AI.
As reported by Business Insider, the Justice Department’s investigation triggered the release of an internal email between Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates, CEO Satya Nadella, and CTO Kevin Scott. The June 2019 email, titled “Thoughts on OpenAI”, outlined the investment opportunity in the AI organisation while highlighting the areas in which Google was significantly ahead of Microsoft in its AI research and models.
