--- description: OpenAI has hired Sarah Friar, former head of Nextdoor, as its chief financial officer, and is set to announce Kevin Weil, formerly of Planet Labs, as leader of a product team. title: OpenAI Expands Leadership Team With Hires of New CFO and Product Chief image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9d7813408b6fa19/698a57b186f68e4a906f5381/sarah-friar.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Companies](/tag/companies/) ## Companies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # OpenAI Expands Leadership Team, Hiring New CFO Sarah Friar and Product Chief Kevin Weil by [Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 11, 2024 2:17 AM CUT  Sarah Friar at Queen’s University in Belfast on April 19, 2023. Sarah Friar at Queen’s University in Belfast on April 19, 2023.Brian Lawless—Getty Images by [Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 11, 2024 2:17 AM CUT OpenAI has hired Sarah Friar, the former chief executive of neighborhood social networking service Nextdoor Holdings Inc., to serve as its chief financial officer, a role that has gone unfilled at the fast-growing artificial intelligence startup for two years. The ChatGPT maker has also named Kevin Weil as its new chief product officer, the company is set to announce Monday. Weil previously steered product development at Instagram and Twitter as an executive at those companies. The expanded C-Suite comes at an important moment for OpenAI. The company is working to boost revenue from its artificial intelligence products by selling services to enterprise customers while also adding features like enhanced voice capabilities to its consumer chatbot app. OpenAI has also begun training a more powerful AI model that could help it stay ahead of a growing number of well-funded rivals who are vying for the same users and businesses. “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,” said OpenAI Chief Executive Officer [Sam Altman](https://time.com/6342827/ceo-of-the-year-2023-sam-altman/ "undefined") in a draft of a blog post announcing the hires. Friar, who also sits on the board of Walmart Inc. and was previously CFO at financial tech company Square, will help OpenAI continue to invest in AI research while growing its global business, the startup said. Weil, formerly the president of product and business atsatellite image services company Planet Labs PBC, will lead a product team devoted to applying OpenAI’s research work to serve the company’s consumer and enterprise users. OpenAI’s leadership is currently facing renewed concerns that it prioritized commercializing AI over ensuring its safety. The startup dissolved a high-profile safety group that was focused on addressing long-term risks of AI. It has also been hit by a series of departures from employees on safety-related teams. OpenAI, for its part, has stressed its commitment to developing AI safely and responsibly. **Read More:** [_A Timeline of All the Recent Accusations Leveled at OpenAI and Sam Altman_](https://time.com/6986711/openai-sam-altman-accusations-controversies-timeline/ "undefined") “The product team at OpenAI has set the pace for both breakthrough innovation, and thoughtful deployment of AI products,” Weil said in a statement. “I am thrilled to be part of the next phase of growth, as we continue to safely and responsibly build towards AGI,” he said, referring to a hypothetical form of AI that can outperform humans on many tasks. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6987302/openai-new-cfo-sarah-friar-product-chief-kevin-weil/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6987302/openai-new-cfo-sarah-friar-product-chief-kevin-weil/"},"headline":"OpenAI Expands Leadership Team, Hiring New CFO Sarah Friar and Product Chief Kevin Weil","datePublished":"2024-06-11T02:17:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:45:24.272Z","description":"OpenAI has hired Sarah Friar, former head of Nextdoor, as its chief financial officer, and is set to announce Kevin Weil, formerly of Planet Labs, as leader of a product team.","url":"https://time.com/6987302/openai-new-cfo-sarah-friar-product-chief-kevin-weil/","keywords":["Companies","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9d7813408b6fa19/698a57b186f68e4a906f5381/sarah-friar.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9d7813408b6fa19/698a57b186f68e4a906f5381/sarah-friar.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sarah Friar, Nextdoor","caption":"Former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar is on stage during the international conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University on April 19, 2023 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.","creditText":"Brian Lawless—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies/","name":"Companies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6987302/openai-new-cfo-sarah-friar-product-chief-kevin-weil/","name":"OpenAI Expands Leadership Team, Hiring New CFO Sarah Friar and Product Chief Kevin Weil"}}]}] ```