OpenAI Replaces Its Top Sales Executive as Leadership Shake-Up Continues
Dali Rajic, formerly president at cybersecurity firm Wiz, steps in as chief revenue officer. He is the latest in a string of senior departures and arrivals at the company.
Key points
- OpenAI replaced chief revenue officer Denise Dresser after nine months in the role.
- Dali Rajic, previously president and COO at Wiz, was named the new CRO in May 2025.
- Wiz, Rajic's former employer, was acquired by Google for $32 billion in 2025, the largest acquisition Google has ever made.
- OpenAI has filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ahead of a possible stock market listing.
- OpenAI says its products now reach more than one billion weekly active users and two million businesses.
OpenAI has a new person running its sales operation. Dali Rajic, who was president and chief operating officer at Wiz, a cybersecurity company bought by Google for $32 billion this year, takes over as chief revenue officer (CRO), the executive responsible for growing the company's income.
He replaces Denise Dresser, who held the role for just nine months.
Why is OpenAI changing so many executives at once?
Rajic's hire is part of a broader shake-up. In the past month, OpenAI has also seen the exit of its chief operating officer Brad Lightcap and Fidji Simo, who held the title of CEO of AGI (artificial general intelligence) deployment and was effectively the company's number two.
Co-founder and president Greg Brockman has stepped into a bigger management role following Simo's departure. He announced Rajic's arrival in a blog post, offering a warm send-off to Dresser: "Denise has led our revenue organization through a formative period for the business and has worked tirelessly to get the team to where it is today."
Brockman's message also pointed to where OpenAI is headed. "The way we're deploying this technology is changing rapidly," he wrote, "and Dali will turn what we've learned into repeatable execution as we build out the full system to make AI broadly useful for people and businesses."
CEO Sam Altman has spent much of this year pushing the company toward selling its tools to large enterprises, the big organisations (hospitals, banks, retailers) that sign major contracts, and pulling back from side projects seen as distractions.
What does this mean for ordinary users?
For now, nothing changes at the product level. OpenAI's tools, including ChatGPT, keep working exactly as before. But the leadership changes signal the company is moving from scrappy AI startup to a business that wants steady, predictable revenue.
That matters if you are a business already using OpenAI's products, or thinking about signing a contract. A more sales-focused leadership team typically means more enterprise support, clearer pricing tiers, and longer-term service commitments.
OpenAI has also filed confidentially with the SEC ahead of a potential IPO (an initial public offering, where a private company sells shares to the public for the first time). This week it bought back $7 billion worth of employee shares in a so-called tender offer, letting staff cash in some of their equity. Some analysts read that as a sign the public listing may be further off than expected. TechCrunch AI first reported that an internal blog post referenced the need for a "relentless focus" on "measurable business impact," though those words were later removed from the published version.
Common questions
Does this affect ChatGPT's free tier?
No. Leadership changes at the executive level do not change product features or pricing. OpenAI's free and paid ChatGPT plans stay as they are unless the company announces otherwise.
What is a chief revenue officer and why does it matter?
A CRO leads the team that sells a company's products and signs deals. At a firm targeting an IPO, a strong CRO can make the difference between hitting growth targets that impress investors and missing them.
