Two Senior OpenAI Executives Leave Company
Two senior OpenAI executives—vice president of people Diane Yoon and Chris Clark, head of nonprofit and strategic initiatives—left the company earlier this week, a company spokesperson said.
The two resignations are the latest high-profile changes to OpenAI’s leadership in the aftermath of Sam Altman’s dramatic ouster and subsequent rehiring by the nonprofit board that runs the startup, events that highlighted its unusual corporate structure. Both executives were among the most long-tenured managers at the developer of ChatGPT, recently worth $86 billion in an employee share sale.
The Takeaway
Two senior OpenAI executives have resigned: Chris Clark, the company’s first chief operating officer and an early board director who led its nonprofit initiatives, and Diane Yoon, who ran HR.
Yoon will continue to serve as an adviser to the company for the rest of the year, OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood said in statement. Julia Villagra, currently OpenAI’s head of human resources, will replace Yoon as vice president of people, Wood said. She didn’t comment on whether Clark would be replaced. Both executives made the decision to resign on their own, Wood said.
“We are immensely grateful to Diane for her dedication and leadership over the past six years,” Wood said. “Under her guidance, OpenAI has grown significantly while maintaining a high standard of excellence across research, product, and other functions.”
Yoon, who joined OpenAI in 2018, oversaw the rapid growth of the company’s staff to more than 700 by late last year, as well as a week of turmoil in late November, when hundreds of the company’s staff threatened to resign over Altman’s firing.
Clark had been at OpenAI for more than eight years and served as its first chief operating officer starting in 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also sat on the nonprofit’s board of directors in 2016 and 2017, according to tax filings. Clark previously worked with Altman at Y Combinator and at Loopt, the Y Combinator-backed location sharing startup Altman co-founded in 2005 and later sold.
In May 2022, Clark took on his most recent role, which he described as “leading OpenAI’s nonprofit and several global ops functions, including real estate, workplace, and strategic initiatives.” In a note to staff, Clark said that “after eight incredible years, I’ve decided to step back and devote more time to the people and projects I care deeply about outside of OpenAI.”
Andrej Karapthy, one of the founding members of OpenAI, left the company in February, The Information first reported.
Yoon did not respond to requests for comment. Clark couldn’t be reached for comment.