OpenAI executive shakeup includes new role for COO Brad Lightcap to lead ‘special projects’

A few OpenAI executives are moving into new roles, according to a report from Bloomberg. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the personnel changes to TechCrunch.

Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer at OpenAI, has a new job leading “special projects,” which will include “complex deals and investments across the company,” AGI chief development officer Fidji Simo announced in a memo. He will report directly to CEO Sam Altman.

Dennis Dresser, former Slack CEO who recently joined OpenAI as chief revenue officer, will take on some of Lightcap’s COO duties in the meantime.

Simo also had news of her own to share: She’ll be taking medical leave for the next few weeks to deal with a neuroimmune condition.

“I have done everything possible to avoid this, but unfortunately my body is not cooperating,” Simo wrote in the note obtained by Bloomberg.

“The timing is crazy because we have an exciting roadmap that the team is implementing, and I would hate to miss even a minute of it,” she said.

While she is on leave, Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI, will take over management of the product.

Kate Roche, OpenAI’s chief marketing officer, will also step down from her role to focus on cancer recovery, but will return to a “different, narrower role when her health allows,” the memo said. The company plans to search for a new marketing director.

“We have a strong leadership team focused on our biggest priorities: advancing groundbreaking research, growing our global user base of nearly a billion users, and advancing enterprise use cases,” OpenAI told TechCrunch in a statement. “We are well positioned to continue executing with continuity and momentum.”