OpenAI has hired Jill Hazelbaker, Uber’s president and chief corporate affairs officer, to take a new role as OpenAI chief corporate affairs officer, ending a roughly nine-month search for a communications leader, Bloomberg reported on November 3, 2026.

The appointment puts one of the tech industry’s most seasoned crisis managers in charge of how OpenAI explains itself to the world. Hazelbaker will report to OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman and will oversee global communications and the company’s corporate positioning, covering brand, social media, cultural and community partnerships, and convenings, according to Unite.AI, which reviewed OpenAI’s announcement.

“She offers the judgment and leadership experience needed for both the opportunities and obligations of developing technology used around the world,” Brockman said.

A decade running Uber’s public face

Hazelbaker joined Uber in 2015 and was promoted to president and chief corporate affairs officer in May 2026, taking on a broad portfolio that included global marketing, communications, public policy, safety, human resources, recruiting, and real estate, Axios reported. Before Uber she held senior communications and public policy roles at Snap and Google and worked on political campaigns. Her final day at Uber is November 30, 2026.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called Hazelbaker “a driving force behind many of the company’s most important strategic moments and a trusted adviser.”

Quote from Jill Hazelbaker on joining OpenAI

Filling a long-vacant seat

The corporate affairs post has sat empty since early 2026, when OpenAI’s previous communications chief Hannah Wong stepped down in January, Moneywise reported. Fortune said the company’s top choice, Hazelbaker herself, turned the role down in the spring before OpenAI ramped up its search with executive firm Daversa Partners, making Tuesday’s announcement the end of a second pass at the same candidate.

About a month after her May promotion at Uber, Hazelbaker announced plans to cut 23% of jobs in Uber’s human resources division as part of a push to simplify the company’s organizational structure, Transport Topics reported.

Why it matters

The hire is a signal that OpenAI is treating public trust as a leadership priority rather than a communications afterthought. Hazelbaker called AI “the most profound technological shift of our lifetime,” said building public trust in it “has never been more consequential,” and welcomed the chance to work with Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and the team they have assembled.

The timing is pointed. With the US midterms underway and regulators worldwide circling AI policy, OpenAI is walking into the most politically sensitive stretch in its history with a new communications chief who spent a decade steering Uber through near-constant regulatory battles.

Key facts on Jill Hazelbaker joining OpenAI

Sources