Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart Inc., speaks during an interview with Bloomberg Studio 1.0 in San Francisco, California, United States, Thursday, March 3, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Fiji Simo, OpenAI chief product and business officer, announced several leadership changes Friday and revealed she was taking significant medical leave due to her worsening health. neuroimmune disease.
OpenAI hired Simo in May, and her condition, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, relapsed a few weeks before she began taking on the role. She told staff in a memo Friday that the last month had been “particularly difficult from a health standpoint” and she decided she needed to take several weeks off to recover.
“During my entire stay here, I postponed medical examinations and new therapies to remain completely focused on my work and not miss a single day of work,” Simo wrote in the memo, seen by CNBC. “I took time off for the first time two weeks before the break to have medical tests. It is now clear that I pushed a little too far and that I really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health.”
In an interview with CNBC In March, Simo said she was diagnosed with POTS in 2019 and saw more than 40 specialists as she tried to understand her condition. Patients with POTS have difficulty keeping their blood pressure stable, which can cause symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue and chest pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This condition can be difficult for health care providers to diagnose.
Simo joined OpenAI after serving as CEO of Instacartand she previously spent more than a decade in several leadership positions at Meta.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman will oversee the product in Simo’s absence, she said. Simo also announced that Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, would be moving to a new role focused on “special projects.” He will report directly to the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman.
Denise Dresser, the company’s chief revenue officer, will assume most of Lightcap’s responsibilities and report directly to Simo. Dresser will not oversee the government work of Lightcap or OpenAI for Countries, which is now integrated into the company’s strategic organization.
Additionally, Simo announced that Kate Rouch, OpenAI’s head of marketing, has decided to step down to focus on her recovery from cancer. Rouch was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer about a year and a half ago, just after starting his role at OpenAI.
“I love this job. I love this team. This is exactly why I didn’t step away and did both: leading OpenAI while undergoing intense cancer treatment,” Rouch wrote in a publication on LinkedIn. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. At some point you have to be honest about your limits. I reached mine.”
Simo said Rouch would return to a smaller role when his health permitted, and that OpenAI would lead the search for his replacement.
“We have a strong leadership team focused on our biggest priorities: advancing cutting-edge research, growing our global user base of nearly a billion users, and powering enterprise use cases,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “We are well-positioned to continue to execute with continuity and momentum.”
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