On Friday, OpenAI confirmed to Business Insider that the company’s longtime chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, is moving into a new role focused on special projects, News.Az reports.
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According to an internal memo first posted by Bloomberg and separately confirmed by OpenAI, Lightcap will report directly to CEO Sam Altman and help expand OpenAI’s enterprise software sales through partnerships with private equity firms. Denise Dresser, the company’s recently named chief revenue officer, will be taking on some of Lightcap’s responsibilities as COO.
OpenAI also confirmed that two senior executives are stepping back for health reasons. According to the internal memo, Fidji Simo, who is the CEO of Applications, is taking a temporary medical leave to pursue treatment for a neuroimmune condition and is expected to return in several weeks.
Chief marketing officer Kate Rouch posted on X on Friday that she will be stepping down to focus on cancer recovery, and would “return in a different role” if her health allows.
“Courage isn’t always pushing harder,” Rouch wrote. “Sometimes it’s choosing your health, your family, and being around for the long run.”
Executive turnover is not new for OpenAI. Altman was briefly removed in late 2023, and the company experienced a wave of high-profile departures, mainly consisting of original board members who had ousted Altman. In 2025, a half dozen AI researchers from OpenAI went to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs.
“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 powering enterprise use cases,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider. “We’re well-positioned to keep executing with continuity and momentum.”
OpenAI is navigating a pivotal period. The company is preparing for a potential IPO and recently raised $122 billion at a valuation of $852 billion. It is also exploring new revenue streams, including testing advertising within ChatGPT, and facing intensifying competition from rivals like Anthropic.
