OpenAI’s executive changes include a new role for COO Brad Lightcap to lead “special projects”

Several OpenAI executives are being moved to new roles, Bloomberg reports. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the personnel changes to TechCrunch.

AGI Development CEO Fiji Simo announced in a memo that OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap is taking on a new role leading “special projects” that involve “complex transactions and investments across the company.” He will report directly to CEO Sam Altman.

Denise Dresser, the former Slack CEO who recently joined OpenAI as chief revenue officer, will take over some of Lightcap’s COO duties on an interim basis.

Simo also shared some news of his own. She will be taking medical leave for the next few weeks as she battles a neuroimmune disease.

“I did everything I could to avoid it, but sadly my body just wouldn’t cooperate,” Simo wrote in a memo obtained by Bloomberg.

“The timing is crazy because we have a very exciting roadmap ahead for the team to execute, but we don’t want to miss a minute of that roadmap,” she said.

During her time off, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman will manage the product.

Kate Ruesch, OpenAI’s head of marketing, will also step down from her role to focus on cancer recovery, but will return to “another, narrower-scope position, health permitting,” the memo said. The company will be looking for a new CMO.

“We have a strong leadership team focused on our biggest priorities: advancing frontier research, growing our global user base of nearly 1 billion users, and strengthening our enterprise use cases,” OpenAI told TechCrunch in a statement. “We are well-positioned to continue executing with continuity and momentum.”