OpenAI Replaces Its Top Sales Executive as Leadership Shake-Up Continues

Key points

• OpenAI replaced chief revenue officer Denise Dresser after nine months in the role.
• Dali Rajic, previously Wiz's president and COO, was named the new CRO in May 2025.
• Wiz was bought by Google for $32 billion this year, the largest acquisition Google has ever made.
• OpenAI has filed confidentially with the US Securities and Exchange Commission 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 served as president and chief operating officer at Wiz (a cybersecurity company Google bought 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 sits inside a broader shake-up. The past month brought the exit of operating chief Brad Lightcap, whose departure we covered on 11 August, 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 stepped into a bigger management role after Simo left, and announced Rajic's arrival in a blog post with a warm word for the outgoing exec: "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 also gestured at what comes next. "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 OpenAI toward selling its tools to large enterprises, the big organisations (hospitals, banks, retailers) that sign major contracts, while pulling back from side projects seen as distractions.

What does this mean for ordinary users?

For now, nothing changes at the product level. ChatGPT and OpenAI's other tools keep working exactly as before. The leadership changes do signal, though, that the company is moving from scrappy AI startup to a business that wants steady, predictable revenue.

That matters if you already use OpenAI's products as a business, or are weighing a contract. A more sales-focused leadership team typically means stronger enterprise support, clearer pricing tiers and longer-term service commitments.

OpenAI 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). Separately, it bought back $7 billion worth of employee shares this week in a tender offer, letting staff cash in some of their equity. As our 11 August story noted, that move may signal a public listing is further off than many expected. Bloomberg News reported that an internal OpenAI blog post called 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.