OpenAI shake-up continues with second major departure of the week

Aug 14, 2026 12:49 AM - 1 day ago 1

OpenAI's executive shake-up continues.

The institution announced Thursday that it is replacing its main gross officer, Denise Dresser, aft only 8 months successful the role. Dali Rajic, formerly the main operating serviceman of Wiz, is taking complete the domiciled pinch the monumental task of preparing OpenAI for its first nationalist offering, expected adjacent year.

Dresser's departure joins a activity of alteration wrong OpenAI's precocious ranks. On Tuesday, erstwhile main operating serviceman Brad Lightcap said he'd beryllium leaving the institution — Dresser had been given parts of Lightcap's erstwhile remit arsenic precocious arsenic April. In July, OpenAI mislaid Johannes Heidecke, its caput of information systems, and Joshua Achiam, its main futurist. Fidji Simo, its CEO of applications, moved into an advisory domiciled owed to wellness reasons.

The melodramatic upheaval comes astatine a important juncture for OpenAI. This year, its rivalry pinch AI laboratory Anthropic reached a fever pitch, pinch the companies battling for marketplace stock and talent arsenic they velocity toward IPOs. OpenAI is trying to parlay its cardinal users into a sustainable business, scrambling to build information centers and triumph customers arsenic its halfway exertion evolves.

Dresser joined OpenAI past December to spearhead its gross growth, coming from a CEO domiciled astatine Slack wrong Salesforce. OpenAI's Thursday merchandise said she would time off aft a modulation period.

"Denise has led our gross statement done a formative play for the business and has worked tirelessly to get the squad to wherever it is today," Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president, said successful the release.

Dresser thanked the OpenAI unit successful a connection she posted connected LinkedIn connected Thursday. She didn't supply specifications astir her adjacent move, penning that she "made the difficult determination to time off OpenAI successful the coming weeks to prosecute different opportunities." Dresser didn't instantly respond to a petition for remark from Business Insider.

OpenAI told Business Insider that nether Dresser, the institution now has 2 cardinal business customers, double its count from a twelvemonth ago. The institution intends to make half of its gross from enterprises by the extremity of the year.

Rajic was Wiz's president and main operating serviceman passim the unreality information firm's caller acquisition by Google. He'd antecedently held executive roles astatine Zscaler and AppDynamics.

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Stephen is simply a elder tech newsman astatine Business Insider, covering OpenAI, Anthropic and the ecosystem astir the starring artificial intelligence companies.Previously he covered exertion astatine SFGATE, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Information and CNBC. He studied publicity and economics astatine Northwestern University.His activity has earned an SF Press Club Investigative Reporting Award and, successful 2025, SPJ NorCal’s Excellence successful Journalism Award for Technology Reporting.Stephen lives successful San Francisco. Contact him via email at [email protected], aliases connected Signal, Telegram, aliases WhatsApp astatine 415-757-8198. Use a individual email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guideline to sharing accusation securely.