OpenAI says BlackRock exec Adebayo Ogunlesi is joining the board
United States President Donald Trump listens as Bayo Ogunlesi, chair of the International Infrastructure Partnerships, listens during a strategic and policy discussion with CEOs at the State Department Library in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 11, 2017 in Washington, DC.
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OpenAI said on Tuesday that Adebayo Ogunlesi, Senior Managing Director at BlackrockHe is joining the startup’s board of directors, the latest announcement of the company’s move to a for-profit structure.
Ogunlesi is a founding partner of Global Infrastructure Partners, which was acquired by BlackRock last year for $12 billion. In the year Before helping launch GPIP in 2006, Ogunlesi spent 23 years at Credit Suisse.
“The rapid growth and development of AI provides a unique opportunity to build a better future,” Ogunlesi said in an OpenAI announcement Tuesday. “The strategies envisioned by this body and investment in infrastructure will be key to unlocking AI’s full potential and delivering its benefits responsibly. I look forward to contributing to this effort and becoming a member of the OpenAI board.”
For OpenAI, Ogunlesi’s addition to the board marks another step in its remarkable transformation into a for-profit company. The board has been completely overhauled since late 2023, when CEO Sam Altman was suddenly ousted before quickly returning to work.
Ex sales force Co-CEO Brett Taylor, who was the chairman of Twitter before it was bought by Elon Musk, became the chairman of OpenAI in November 2023 after Altman’s challenge. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers joined at the same time. In the past year, the board has added several new faces. Instacart CEO Fiji Simo and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellman, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, now known as the Gates Foundation.
In the year OpenAI, which was founded as a charity in 2015, announced in late December that it would create a public benefit corporation that would oversee commercial operations, removing some of the philanthropic restrictions and allowing it to operate as a high-growth startup.
Last year, OpenAI was valued at $157 billion by the end of 2022, as it continues to release updated big language models and new tools after starting the development of artificial intelligence.
The company said it would be able to do business with “common stock” by converting to Delaware’s PBC, hiring staff for its nonprofit arm, and allowing that wing to carry out philanthropic activities in health care, education and science, OpenAI said in December.
Musk, one of OpenAI’s co-founders, is suing to try and stop OpenAI from turning into a full-fledged for-profit business.
Ogunlesi’s other board positions include BlackRock, Topgolf Callaway Brands, Cosmos Energy Holdings and Terminal Investments Limited.
— CNBC’s Hayden Field contributed to this report.
See: OpenAI has developed an economic blueprint.
