Uber’s Jill Hazelbaker to Join OpenAI as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

Uber’s President Jill Hazelbaker is joining OpenAI as its chief corporate affairs officer, filling a role that has been empty since the start of the year.

Hazelbaker, who is also a veteran of Google and Snap, will be responsible for global communications and brand strategy. She will attempt to stabilize a team that has had significant turnover in its senior management in recent years and a time when market jitters ahead of a potential IPO are mounting.

Hazelbaker has been in on-again-off-again talks with OpenAI over the past year. It’s unclear what changed. At Uber she has been known as a deft and straight-shooting crisis manager who handled the ouster of founder Travis Kalanick, among other things. She also helped Uber win its fight to have Uber drivers classified as contractors, not employees, in California. Her last day with Uber will be Nov. 30.

She joins OpenAI as its challenges are mounting. Anthropic has surged further ahead in revenue and profitability, and OpenAI has made limited headway in efforts to regain ground through discounting. OpenAI also has been hit by a wave of cybersecurity and safety problems in recent months.

While Anthropic is preparing to go public imminently, OpenAI has delayed its own IPO to next year, with CEO Sam Altman citing concerns about AI safety.

The company is in the process of raising fresh capital but has in the past weeks slashed both its fundraising target and its target valuation. It initially sought to raise $30 billion at a $1.4 trillion valuation. It is now looking to raise $20 billion at a $1.25 trillion valuation.

Hazelbaker is joining the company after a period of tumult in the senior management. OpenAI’s Chief Communications Officer Hannah Wong left the company in January, and Chris Lehane, the company’s chief global affairs officer, has been serving as interim head of communications. The company also recently hired former Citadel Head of Corporate Affairs Josh King as a VP handling financial communications as the company prepares for a potential IPO.

In a 2020 profile of Hazelbaker in The Information, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, “There may be execs who take the pulse of the room before speaking up. Jill takes her own pulse and then speaks up,” Khosrowshahi says. “The vast majority of the time she is right.”