OpenAI appoints Nextdoor, Square alum as CFO

Dive Brief:

ChatGPT-owner OpenAI appointed Sarah Friar, the former CEO of the social networking app provider Nextdoor and ex-CFO at Square, as the artificial intelligence firm’s CFO, according to a release Monday. Since transitioning from the CFO role in May 2022 to become OpenAI's COO, Brad Lightcap has continued to oversee OpenAI's finances, according to an OpenAI spokesperson, adding that Friar will start in August.
San Francisco, California-based OpenAI said Friar will lead a finance team that supports the company’s mission by providing continued investment in its research capabilities and ensuring the company can scale to meet growing customer demand. The company also hired Kevin Weil, who has previously held senior roles at Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
“Sarah and Kevin bring a depth of experience that will enable OpenAI to scale our operations, set a strategy for the next phase of growth and ensure that our teams have the resources they need to continue to thrive,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement in the release.

Dive Insight

Friar brings a wealth of Silicon Valley experience to her new role.

She was CEO of Nextdoor for just over five years ending in May, and before that she was finance chief at Square from 2012 through 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile. From 2000 through April 2011, she also was a managing director, business unit leader for technology at Goldman Sachs, and previously also worked for two years as a business analyst for McKinsey & Company.

Sarah Friar

(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Bloomberg Businessweek) via Getty Images

“I’m honored to join a team that is uniquely talented and mission-focused,” Friar said in a statement in the release. “My goal is to help OpenAI continue excelling at what it does best — producing top-tier research and collaborating to maximize the benefits of AI tools for everyone.”

Friar’s appointment follows shortly after a change in finance leadership at another big name tech firm. Last week, Google parent Alphabet announced that long-time Eli Lilly veteran Anat Ashkenazi will become CFO of the technology giant, effective July 31, CFO Dive previously reported. Ashkenazi, 51, is will serve at “full capacity” through July in her current role as the CFO of the Indianpolis, Indiana-based pharmaceutical giant.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to state that Brad Lightcap continued to oversee the company's finances after he transitioned from CFO to COO in May 2022.