OpenAI's three senior executives undergo changes on the same day: Simo takes a leave of absence, COO transitions to a different role without a successor, and CMO resigns to focus on cancer treatment

According to monitoring from 1M AI News, Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI’s AGI deployment division, announced that her condition has worsened due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and that she will take a leave of several weeks to receive new treatment. In an internal letter, she wrote: “I have kept postponing medical checkups and new therapies, just to fully focus on work and not miss a single day. Now it appears that I really pushed myself too far.” This is her first time taking time off since she joined OpenAI in August last year. During her sick leave, co-founder and president Greg Brockman took over product responsibilities, while CSO Jason Kwon, CFO Sarah Friar, and Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser jointly handled day-to-day operations.

On the same day, COO Brad Lightcap officially moved to a different role: he no longer oversees day-to-day operations and instead focuses on special projects. His top priority is to advance cooperation between OpenAI and private equity institutions and to sell AI tools to their portfolio companies, reporting directly to CEO Sam Altman. OpenAI said there are currently no plans to appoint a new COO. Lightcap’s existing commercial responsibilities have been taken over by the former Slack CEO Dresser. Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch left the company due to cancer, and plans to return with reduced responsibilities after recovery. Former Meta CMO Gary Briggs, who has served as a marketing consultant for OpenAI over the past year, will temporarily oversee marketing until a successor is found.

All three changes were announced on the same day, making the timing sensitive. Just this week, OpenAI completed $122 billion in financing at a $852 billion valuation. Previously, Altman had indicated internally that Simo would lead the earnings call after OpenAI’s IPO. With eight months in the role, Simo has been a key force driving OpenAI’s product integration—from shutting down Sora to integrating ChatGPT and Codex to build a “super app,” all led by her. Her short-term absence, combined with the COO position being left vacant, adds uncertainty to the leadership stability narrative during the IPO window period.