OpenAI loses CRO Denise Dresser in under a year, hires Wiz's Dali Rajic pre-IPO

OpenAI has confirmed that Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser is leaving the company after fewer than 12 months in the role, citing her pursuit of other opportunities. The departure makes Dresser the second senior executive to exit in recent days, underscoring what appears to be an accelerating leadership shakeup at the AI juggernaut. Her exit comes as OpenAI finalizes preparations for an anticipated Initial Public Offering, a high-stakes process that demands consistent executive leadership and a proven revenue engine. Dresser joined OpenAI in 2023 from Stripe, where she had led sales and revenue teams, and was tasked with scaling OpenAI's enterprise and API businesses amid explosive growth from ChatGPT and model deployments.

In a swift move to fill the gap, OpenAI has appointed Dali Rajic as its new CRO. Rajic previously served as president and COO at Wiz, the fast-growing cybersecurity company that recently turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google. Rajic brings significant SaaS and enterprise experience, which OpenAI likely hopes will stabilize its go-to-market operations and reassure investors ahead of the IPO. The leadership turnover follows broader shifts within OpenAI, including the earlier departure of other key figures. While the company continues to dominate AI headlines and post record revenue, these exits raise concerns about internal friction and strategic alignment as OpenAI transitions from a research lab to a public company.