{"id":139230,"date":"2026-08-13T20:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/139230\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:27:14","slug":"openai-hired-a-wave-of-powerful-female-executives-two-years-later-almost-all-are-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/139230\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI hired a wave of powerful female executives. Two years later, almost all are gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

As OpenAI began to transition from a research-focused organization to a true tech giant building out its commercial capacity, the AI leader brought on a spate of experienced execs\u2014many of whom were women. There was Fidji Simo<\/a>, leading commercial applications and later nearly the entire business side; Sarah Friar, readying the company for an IPO as CFO; Kate Rouch as CMO; and Denise Dresser, the former CEO of Slack hired as OpenAI\u2019s chief revenue officer.<\/p>\n

About two years after that hiring spree began, only one of those executives\u2014Friar\u2014remains in her original role at OpenAI. Simo and Rouch both left their roles for health reasons<\/a> (Simo is still working in an advisory role). Today, it was reported that Dresser is stepping down<\/a> less than a year after joining OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Recently, Dresser had been tasked with<\/a> \u201cgrowing sales among large businesses looking to adopt artificial-intelligence tools in their workforces.\u201d Her replacement is Wiz president and COO Dali Rajic, and he will be responsible for turning \u201cwhat we\u2019ve learned into repeatable execution as we build out the full system to make AI broadly useful for people and businesses,\u201d OpenAI president Greg Brockman said. The WSJ reported that Dresser is stepping down to pursue other opportunities. <\/p>\n

After Simo\u2019s exit, Brockman took over many of her responsibilities at OpenAI. (Some went to chief strategy officer Jason Kwon, and others to Friar.) When Simo was in her full-time executive role, two-thirds of the organization reported up to her\u2014including many other execs. To be fair, the upheaval among OpenAI\u2019s exec ranks has extended to men too; COO Brad Lightcap announced his exit<\/a> last week. Overall, it\u2019s a new era with, it seems, a new executive team.<\/p>\n

When OpenAI began hiring this crop of execs, it seemed like a signal that maybe this era of Big Tech could be different. Women execs were excited about this world-shifting moment in technology, and didn\u2019t want another generation of tech giants to pass them by. Many had the exact skill sets needed to turn AI labs into money-making enterprises. With AI reshaping how we work, live, and relate to each other, it was encouraging to know women would be at the table steering those enormously consequential decisions. <\/p>\n

But that era was short-lived. Big AI is not so different from Big Tech. There are still notable female founders in the space (like Daniela Amodei and Mira Murati). And women continue to lead AI companies\u2019 finance functions<\/a>, from Friar to Ruth Porat and Anat Ashkenazi at Google, to CFOs at Nvidia<\/a> and Oracle<\/a>. Within OpenAI, there are rising female execs one level below the top like Ashley Alexander, who leads consumer verticals, and Joy Jiao, who was just elevated under Brockman as head of life sciences. But it no longer feels like a given that women will be in the room for some of these companies\u2019 most critical business decisions.<\/p>\n

Once again<\/a>, we\u2019re reminded of how significant the exit of every female exec from the very top is, when there are still so few. Within OpenAI, two out of three departures of female execs were due to their health\u2014something out of the control of the company. (Their successors have all been men, though.) <\/p>\n

AI is transforming our world. If it\u2019s going to be for the better for all of us, we need women at the table. <\/p>\n

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune\u2019s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES<\/p>\n

Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House.\u00a0The 28-year-old is stepping down as press secretary “to spend more time with her young family,” President Trump said. She is expected “to remain involved<\/a> as an outside Trump adviser and influential Republican voice.” No word on her replacement yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flock Safety took over police forces with 120,000 cameras in 6,000 communities.\u00a0But at least 50 officers have been accused of or charged with using license-plate readers for unauthorized purposes, stalking women, according to a Washington Post investigation<\/a>. Flock is now rolling out<\/a> tools that flag abnormal search behavior to address the issue, as some cities cancel their contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Checking the daily stock price = reading the tabloids.\u00a0That’s how Jennifer Garner says she feels after the IPO of her kids’ food brand Once Upon a Farm (she doesn’t do either). “I would not do well under that kind of pressure or scrutiny from myself,” she says in a new Forbes profile<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The battle of Barbie 2!\u00a0The sequel is in crisis<\/a> as Warner Bros. declines to meet the asks of Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, Noah Baumbach, and Ryan Gosling. If they can’t get to a deal in four months, Barbie rights revert back to Mattel. The first movie was the studio’s highest-grossing film ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ON MY RADAR<\/p>\n

The optimization backlash has begun\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a><\/p>\n

The good man shortage has gotten exponentially worse\u00a0The Cut<\/a><\/p>\n

Postpartum, I thought I was a prophet. My doctors saved me\u00a0Vogue<\/a><\/p>\n

PARTING WORDS<\/p>\n

“I always felt like I saw opportunity where others didn\u2019t, and I saw solutions in places where others didn\u2019t.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lila Ibrahim on her path to becoming the first COO<\/a> at Google DeepMind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As OpenAI began to transition from a research-focused organization to a true tech giant building out its commercial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[501,2006,2007,2008,157],"class_list":["post-139230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-career","tag-most-powerful-women","tag-mpw-daily","tag-no-copyright","tag-openai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}