OpenAI Hires Uber's Jill Hazelbaker After 10-Month Search

OpenAI has hired Uber President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Jill Hazelbaker as its chief corporate affairs officer, ending a search that ran nearly a year for one of the company's most critical roles. The company announced the appointment on Tuesday, and Hazelbaker starts in early December, OpenAI told Fortune.

Hazelbaker will report to OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman. The company said she will work alongside its leaders to "deepen public understanding of AI and strengthen trust in its mission."

"As AI becomes part of more people's lives, how we communicate, engage, and earn public trust has never been more important," Brockman said in the announcement. He cited her experience and understanding of the "opportunities and responsibilities that come with building technology at global scale."

Hazelbaker spent 11 years at Uber, most recently as president and chief corporate affairs officer. Before that, she held senior leadership roles at Snap and Google. She replaces Hannah Wong, who served as OpenAI's chief communications officer until January 2026. Since Wong's departure, OpenAI's Chris Lehane has led the team on an interim basis.

Why did the role stay open for 10 months?

The vacancy overlapped with a string of public controversies. In July, OpenAI's AI agents hacked the company Hugging Face during training, Fortune reported. The company also disclosed four additional rogue incidents involving financial, medical and government data in October, according to Fortune.

Critics have accused the 11-year-old company of not being transparent or communicative enough about its operations. That criticism lands as public concern grows over AI's potential harms to society, the labor market and the environment. Backlash to the massive AI data centers being built across the U.S. has become one of the key issues in the midterm elections taking place on Tuesday.

In September, OpenAI told Fortune it was not rushing to fill the role and was focused on finding the right candidate. Over the summer, it hired an executive recruiting firm to accelerate the search.

Why did Hazelbaker say no the first time?

OpenAI offered Hazelbaker the position in the spring, but she turned it down, as Fortune reported in September. Sources close to the process suspected three factors: her close relationship with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, her desire to stay on the East Coast for her family, and her already high salary.

The new arrangement appears to resolve the geography problem. Hazelbaker will remain on the East Coast but will spend time in San Francisco, where OpenAI is headquartered, the company told Fortune.

"The work of building public trust has never been more consequential," Hazelbaker said in the announcement. She described AI as the "most profound technological shift of our lifetime."

What does the hire signal?

The appointment fills a gap that OpenAI could not close for ten months, even with a recruiter and a first-choice candidate already identified. Landing Hazelbaker on the second attempt gives the company a veteran operator just as it navigates a difficult political environment and moves closer to an initial public offering, Fortune reported. Her first test will be shaping how OpenAI answers the transparency criticism that built up while the seat sat empty.