OpenAI Hires Uber's Jill Hazelbaker as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

OpenAI has appointed Jill Hazelbaker, Uber's president and chief corporate affairs officer, as its own chief corporate affairs officer, handing one of the most scrutinised communications jobs in technology to an executive who spent a decade managing Uber's reputation through regulatory fights on several continents.

The announcement gives Hazelbaker responsibility for global communications and corporate positioning. She will work with OpenAI's leadership team to, in the company's words, deepen public understanding of AI and build trust in its mission. That is a broad mandate, and the job description stops short of specifying which functions beyond communications she will control — a notable omission given that at Uber her portfolio stretched well past the press office.

What is Hazelbaker actually bringing to the role?

Her record is the pitch. At Uber, she oversaw global communications, marketing, public policy, safety and people teams. She managed the company's reputation through its global expansion, a period that included sustained regulatory and political pressure in market after market. Anyone hiring a chief corporate affairs officer for an AI company under antitrust, copyright and safety scrutiny is buying exactly that experience.

Before Uber, she led communications and public policy at Snap. Before that, she held senior roles at Google: global corporate communications, communications across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and government relations in Europe.

She started in US politics, working local, state and national campaigns. Her roles included national communications director and chief spokesperson for Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, and press secretary to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

What does this change for comms practitioners?

For the industry, the hire signals how AI companies now structure their public-facing operations. OpenAI is not staffing a press office; it is installing a political-style affairs operation that blends communications, policy and positioning — the model Uber built during a decade of regulatory combat. Expect OpenAI's comms output to look more like a campaign than a product public relations shop.

The appointment also confirms the talent pipeline: senior technology communications executives are moving into AI as the sector's centre of gravity shifts. Hazelbaker is not a safety researcher or a policy generalist. She is a career communicator with political roots, which tells you what OpenAI thinks its problem is — persuasion, not explanation.

What are the two sides saying?

OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman said Hazelbaker's experience and judgement would be valuable as the company works to communicate the opportunities and responsibilities associated with AI. That is a statement of intent, not a plan; no specifics on structure, team changes or reporting lines accompanied it.

Hazelbaker framed the stakes in bigger terms. She said the technology represented a profound shift, and that building public trust would be central to OpenAI's work as AI reaches more people and industries.

Both statements are promises, and both will be tested quickly. OpenAI faces ongoing litigation from publishers, intensifying regulatory attention in the US and Europe, and a public still making up its mind about what AI should be allowed to do. Trust-building in that environment is a claim with a short shelf life.

What the announcement does not say is also worth noting: no start date beyond the immediate transition, no word on who reports to Hazelbaker, and no detail on whether policy and public affairs teams will consolidate under her, as they did at Uber.

The hire is a clear bet that trust is now an operational function. Whether that bet pays off depends on what the new officer does with the portfolio — not on the résumé that won her the job.