Sion Mills woman Sarah Friar appointed CFO of artificial intelligence specialist and ChatGPT developer OpenAI

The California-headquartered firm announced Ms. Friar’s appointment alongside Kevin Weil, who is joining as Chief Product Officer (CPO).

“I’m honoured to join a team that is uniquely talented and mission-focused,” said Ms. Friar, who grew up in Tyrone and attended Strabane Grammar School in the 1980s.

“My goal is to help OpenAI continue excelling at what it does best—producing top-tier research and collaborating to maximize the benefits of AI tools for everyone.”

Sarah Friar, pictured on May 3, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

“The product team at OpenAI has set the pace for both breakthrough innovation, and thoughtful deployment of AI products,” said Kevin Weil. “I am thrilled to be part of the next phase of growth, as we continue to safely and responsibly build towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).”

OpenAI was founded in 2015 but shot to prominence following the development of ChatGPT, its large language learning machine and web interface, and DALL-E, its text-to-image picture generator.

Ms. Friar most recently served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nextdoor.

She was previously CFO at Square, and worked at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Salesforce.

She is a Board Member of Walmart and Consensys, a Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and Co-Chair of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, an integral component of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI).

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: “Sarah and Kevin bring a depth of experience that will enable OpenAI to scale our operations, set a strategy for the next phase of growth, and ensure that our teams have the resources they need to continue to thrive.”

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