(Bloomberg) — OpenAI is naming its second new chief revenue officer in less than a year, a sign of efforts to bolster sales growth ahead of a highly anticipated Wall Street debut.
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The AI startup has hired Dali Rajic, president and chief operating officer of Alphabet Inc.-owned cybersecurity firm Wiz, as its new revenue chief. Rajic succeeds Denise Dresser, the former chief executive officer of Slack, who was hired for the CRO role at OpenAI in December.
Dresser will leave OpenAI to pursue other opportunities following a transition period.
The move adds to a series of executive shuffles and departures at the ChatGPT maker in recent months. Longtime executive Brad Lightcap announced plans earlier this week to exit the company for a new project. Fidji Simo, who oversaw much of OpenAI’s core business, stepped down last month after taking a medical leave. And Kevin Weil, the startup’s former product chief, left in April.
The new hire also represents one of the first key executive appointments from OpenAI President Greg Brockman in his newly expanded leadership position overseeing more of the firm’s business after Simo’s departure.
“Denise has led our revenue organization through a formative period for the business and has worked tirelessly to get the team to where it is today,” Brockman said in a blog post Thursday. “The way we’re deploying this technology is changing rapidly, and Dali will turn what we’ve learned into repeatable execution as we build out the full system to make AI broadly useful for people and businesses.”
The next phase of OpenAI’s business will require the firm to have a “relentless focus” on proving “measurable business impact” for its customers for every dollar they spend on AI, the company said in the blog post.
Brockman said Rajic has experience building customer-focused organizations with attention to metrics, and a cybersecurity background that’s increasingly relevant as businesses think about adopting and defending against more cyber-capable AI models.
Brockman also said OpenAI’s annual revenue run rate increased more than 20% month-over-month in July, with 32% growth for business customers, according to the internal note.
