It has now been several months since calm has returned to the OpenAI offices. However, The Information revealed that two senior executives of the firm left the company last week. They are Chris Clark, manager of strategic and nonprofit initiatives, and Diane Yoon, vice president of people.
Having spent eight and six years respectively with the company, the two directors were among the longest-serving executives. Chris Clark was even part of the board – during the first years of OpenAI – before leaving in 2018.
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The dismissal of Sam Altman, a drama in three acts
These are the last significant changes reported within the management of OpenAI, after the ouster of Sam Altman which turned into a reality TV series in the space of a few days. For the record, the CEO of OpenAI was fired by its board of directors last November after being accused of hiding key information for the company. What followed was an announcement that was surprising to say the least: Sam Altman is joining a new division at Microsoft, accompanied by other employees.
A final turnaround took place a week after the start of the incident: the board of directors reversed its decision and reinstated Sam Altman as CEO. An announcement which resulted in a renewal of the board and the promise of an investigation to shed light on this series.
A board of directors in search of stability
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The new board consists of Bret Taylor (as chairman), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo. The latter, who is notably CEO of Quora and was CTO of Facebook, is the only member to remain in office during the transition. With the mission of recruiting additional members to reestablish a council of up to nine members, the board kept its promise.
Last March Sam Altman was welcomed or rather reinstated alongside three new members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, former executive vice-president and general counsel of Sony Corporation as well as Fiji Simo, CEO and president of Instacart. Let us hope that the two resignations announced by The Information are not the start of a new crisis for OpenAI.
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