OpenAI names Jill Hazelbaker chief corporate affairs officer

OpenAI named Jill Hazelbaker chief corporate affairs officer, putting a nearly 20-year communications veteran in charge of global communications and corporate positioning.

The announcement appeared on Nov. 4, 2026. Hazelbaker comes from Uber, where she most recently served as president and chief corporate affairs officer. Her remit covers global communications and corporate positioning. She will also work with OpenAI leaders to improve public understanding of AI and strengthen trust in the company’s mission.

What does this change for communications teams?

For OpenAI, one senior executive will have explicit responsibility for how the company explains AI and manages its corporate position. The announcement does not identify her reporting line, start date, team size or budget, or describe the departments that will report to her.

Those omissions matter to practitioners. A title can mark a strategic priority without creating a new operating structure. Until OpenAI defines the role’s authority and measures, the appointment signals greater executive ownership of public trust, not a proven change to its communications machinery.

OpenAI says Hazelbaker will “deepen public understanding” of AI and “strengthen trust” in its mission. The company supplies no benchmarks, targets or timetable for either aim. The promise therefore sets a direction, but it does not yet establish how the company will judge success.

The experience behind the appointment

Hazelbaker has nearly two decades of experience advising technology companies and political leaders. OpenAI says she has supported those organizations through extraordinary growth and some of their most consequential challenges.

At Uber, OpenAI credits Hazelbaker with helping to lead the company’s transformation from an ambitious startup into what it calls one of the world’s largest global technology platforms. That description presents Uber’s scale as a fact and Hazelbaker’s role as part of the story. The announcement offers no company or individual performance figures, so readers cannot separate her contribution from the work of the wider organization.

Why public trust sits at the center

Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s co-founder and president, said:

“As AI becomes part of more people’s lives, how we communicate, engage, and earn public trust has never been more important. Jill brings exceptional judgment, seasoned leadership, and a deep understanding of the opportunities and responsibilities that come with building technology at global scale.

She’s exactly the kind of leader we need for this next chapter, and I’m thrilled to welcome her to OpenAI.”

Brockman’s statement ties Hazelbaker’s appointment to a broader communications problem: AI’s growing presence in daily life increases the burden on the company to explain its work and earn confidence. His praise for Hazelbaker’s judgment and experience remains an assessment from OpenAI’s leadership, rather than an independently tested measure of performance.

The company also frames the hire as an investment in the leadership and capabilities needed to engage more deeply with the people and institutions shaping AI’s future. The announcement does not identify those institutions or describe an engagement program. Nor does it explain how Hazelbaker’s work will differ from the communications work already underway at OpenAI.

That leaves a clear but unquantified mandate. Hazelbaker brings senior corporate-affairs experience from Uber and broad advisory work across technology and political leadership. OpenAI wants her to lead global communications and corporate positioning while improving public understanding and trust. The organization has not yet supplied the organizational details, targets or reporting mechanisms that would show how far she can move those goals.

For communications practitioners watching the company, the immediate signal is that OpenAI has placed public trust under a named executive with global positioning duties. The next test is less dramatic and more practical: whether the company publishes the remit, staffing and measures that turn that mandate into a disciplined communications operation.