OpenAI\u2019s chief communications officer, Hannah Wong, announced internally on Monday that she is leaving the company in January, WIRED has learned. In a statement to WIRED, OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood confirmed the departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cHannah has played a defining role in shaping how people understand OpenAI and the work we do,\u201d said CEO Sam Altman and CEO of applications Fidji Simo in a joint statement. \u201cShe has an extraordinary ability to bring clarity to complex ideas, and to do it with care and grace. We\u2019re deeply grateful for her leadership and partnership these last five years, and we wish her the very best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wong joined OpenAI in 2021 when it was a relatively small research lab and has led the company\u2019s communications team as ChatGPT has grown into one of the world\u2019s largest consumer products. She was considered instrumental in leading the company through the PR crisis that was Altman\u2019s brief ouster and rehiring in 2023\u2014a period the company internally calls \u201cthe blip.\u201d Wong assumed the chief communications officer role in August 2024 and has expanded the company\u2019s communications team since then.<\/p>\n
In a drafted LinkedIn post shared with WIRED, Wong said that OpenAI\u2019s VP of communications, Lindsey Held, will lead the company\u2019s communications team until a new chief communications officer is hired. OpenAI\u2019s chief marketing officer, Kate Rouch, is leading the search for Wong\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese years have been intense and deeply formative,\u201d said Wong in the LinkedIn post. \u201cI\u2019m grateful I got to help tell OpenAI\u2019s story, introduce ChatGPT and other incredible products to the world, and share more about the people forging the path to AGI during an extraordinary moment of growth and momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wong says she looks forward to spending more time with her husband and kids as she figures out the next chapter in her career.<\/p>\n
Update: 12\/15\/2025, 7:30 pm EDT: WIRED has clarified Kate Rouch\u2019s title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI\u2019s chief communications officer, Hannah Wong, announced internally on Monday that she is leaving the company in January,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[363,8555,111,139,69,620,1518,1657,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-185654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-communications","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-openai","14":"tag-research","15":"tag-sam-altman","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}