# OpenAI Leadership Roster of [[OpenAI]]'s board of directors and executive officers. This page maps **who holds power and how it has shifted** — from the nonprofit board that tried (and failed) to fire [[Sam Altman]] in November 2023, through the for-profit conversion in October 2025, to the current PBC structure preparing for a Q4 2026 IPO. > Verify against OpenAI's corporate disclosures and the S-1 filing (confidentially submitted June 8, 2026). Board composition last cross-checked June 2026. ## Governance structure — the thing that matters OpenAI's governance has undergone three distinct phases: 1. **Nonprofit control (2015–2019):** OpenAI, Inc. was a 501(c)(3) with a board that held ultimate authority. No equity, no investors, no profit motive. 2. **Capped-profit hybrid (2019–2025):** Created a "capped profit" subsidiary (investors could earn up to 100x). The nonprofit retained nominal control — until the November 2023 board crisis proved that control was a paper tiger when tested against [[Microsoft]]'s $13B+ investment and employee pressure. 3. **Public Benefit Corporation (October 2025–present):** Recapitalized as **OpenAI Group PBC**. The nonprofit was renamed the **OpenAI Foundation**, retained a 25.8% equity stake and governance oversight, but the for-profit entity became the primary operating structure. [[SoftBank]]'s $40B Series F was contingent on this conversion by Dec. 31, 2025. The practical effect: OpenAI now operates as a for-profit corporation with a mission statement, not a mission-driven nonprofit with a revenue arm. The Foundation's 25.8% stake gives it economic interest but no structural veto. ## Board of Directors The board serves both the OpenAI Foundation and OpenAI Group PBC. As of April 2026, all but one Foundation board member also sat on the PBC board. | Director | Role | On board since | Notes / interlocks | |---|---|---|---| | Bret Taylor | Chair | Nov 2023 (post-crisis) | Co-CEO of Salesforce (2021–2022); chairman of the board; appointed to stabilize governance after the Altman firing | | [[Sam Altman]] | CEO & Director | 2019 (co-founder) | The only non-independent director; reinstated Nov 2023 after 72-hour firing crisis | | Adam D'Angelo | Director | 2018 | Quora CEO; the only pre-crisis board member who survived; originally voted to fire Altman, then reversed | | Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann | Director | Mar 2024 | Former CEO of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former CEO of UCSF | | Dr. Zico Kolter | Director | Mar 2024 | Carnegie Mellon CS professor; AI safety expertise | | Gen. Paul M. Nakasone (ret.) | Director | Mar 2024 | Former NSA Director and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command (2018–2024); the military-intelligence pipeline personified | | Nicole Seligman | Director | Mar 2024 | Former EVP and General Counsel of Sony; corporate governance expertise | | Adebayo Ogunlesi | Director | early 2025 | Founding Partner/Chairman/CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP); Senior Managing Director at [[BlackRock]]; infrastructure investment and global finance expertise | **Notable departure:** Lawrence Summers resigned from the board in November 2025. **The post-crisis board:** After the November 2023 crisis, OpenAI essentially replaced its entire board. The directors who fired Altman — [[Ilya Sutskever]], Helen Toner, and Tasha McCauley — were all removed. The reconstituted board is heavier on corporate governance, lighter on AI safety, and includes a former NSA Director — a signal of the defense-establishment alignment that culminated in the February 2026 Pentagon contract. ## Executive Officers | Executive | Title | At OpenAI since | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | [[Sam Altman]] | CEO | 2019 (co-founder) | $1M Trump inauguration donor; architect of the for-profit conversion | | [[Greg Brockman]] | President & Co-founder | 2015 (co-founder) | Returned Nov 2024 from sabbatical; "builder-in-chief" overseeing [[Stargate Project]] infrastructure and product strategy; $50M Leading the Future super PAC commitment | | Fidji Simo | CEO of Applications | Aug 2025 | Former CEO of Instacart, ex-Meta VP; temporarily stepped back due to medical condition (2026); Brockman covering product | | Sarah Friar | CFO | Aug 2024 | Former CEO of Nextdoor, former CFO of Square/Block; reports to Simo (not Altman) — an unusual structure; IPO preparation lead | | Brad Lightcap | COO → Special Projects | 2018 | Transitioned from COO to lead special projects (complex deals, investments), reporting directly to Altman | | Mark Chen | Chief Research Officer | 2018 | Promoted from SVP of Research (Sept 2024) → CRO (March 2025); leads research org alongside Jakub Pachocki | | Jakub Pachocki | Chief Scientist | May 2024 | Replaced [[Ilya Sutskever]] as chief scientist after Sutskever's departure | | Denise Dresser | Chief Revenue Officer | 2026 | Former Slack CEO; assumed key commercial responsibilities | | Joseph Larson | Head of Government | July 2025 | Former Anduril executive; former Deputy CDAO in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; "Wash100 award" for AI adoption in national security | ## The departure ledger OpenAI's leadership history is defined as much by who left as by who stayed. The departures cluster into two waves: **Wave 1 — the safety exodus (May 2024):** - [[Ilya Sutskever]] — co-founder and Chief Scientist. Left to found Safe Superintelligence (SSI) after six months of diminished influence following the failed Altman coup. The implicit rebuke: naming his new company after what his old one was supposed to be. - Jan Leike — co-lead of the Superalignment team. Resigned hours after Sutskever, publicly writing that OpenAI's "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products." Joined [[Anthropic]]. **Wave 2 — the executive exodus (September 2024):** - Mira Murati — CTO. Departed to "do her own exploration." Had been the public face of technical credibility. - Bob McGrew — Chief Research Officer. Left alongside Murati. - Barret Zoph — VP of Research. Left alongside Murati and McGrew. **Earlier departures to [[Anthropic]]:** - [[Dario Amodei]] — VP of Research → founded [[Anthropic]] (2021) - Daniela Amodei — VP of Operations → co-founded [[Anthropic]] (2021) - Tom Brown — GPT-3 lead author → [[Anthropic]] - Chris Olah — researcher → [[Anthropic]] - Sam McCandlish — researcher → [[Anthropic]] - Jared Kaplan — researcher → [[Anthropic]] **Other notable departures:** - John Schulman — co-founder → joined [[Anthropic]] (Aug 2024) - Daniel Kokotajlo — governance researcher → resigned over for-profit conversion concerns - Miles Brundage — policy researcher → departed amid safety concerns The pattern: the people who would have objected to OpenAI's defense pivot, for-profit conversion, and speed-over-safety trajectory are gone. The current executive team is optimized for commercial execution and government relationships, not safety research. ## Open questions to track - Full S-1 disclosure of executive compensation, equity grants, and governance details. - Whether Fidji Simo returns to active CEO of Applications role. - Any additional board appointments ahead of IPO. - Insider equity positions and lockup terms post-IPO. ## See Also - [[OpenAI]] — company page - [[OpenAI Dossier]] — dossier front door - [[OpenAI Investors]] - [[OpenAI Watch Log]] - [[Musk v. OpenAI Trial]] - [[Anthropic]] — where many former OpenAI leaders went