Who came and went in IT this November
Back and forth at OpenAI, changes at Clorox and Slack.
Francis Scialabba
• less than 3 min read
Eoin Higgins is a reporter for IT Brew whose work focuses on the AI sector and IT operations and strategy.
OpenAI has a new CEO—again. Also it’s the old CEO, from a few days ago.
IT Brew reviewed the comings and goings in the tech industry C-suite last month.
OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman removed by board
Altman’s removal from OpenAI came on Friday, Nov. 17, and sent shockwaves through the tech industry. The decision, to put it mildly, backfired spectacularly. That evening, OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman resigned. And on Monday, Nov. 20, more than 700 of the company’s 770 employees signed an open letter declaring they too would resign if Altman wasn’t reinstated.
Meanwhile…
Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear takes over at OpenAI
Shear, the former CEO of streaming company Twitch, was named OpenAI’s interim CEO on Nov. 19, replacing prior interim CEO Mira Murati. During his extremely brief tenure, Shear raised questions about how Altman was removed in the first place, and threatened to himself step down if the explanations weren’t satisfactory.
That wouldn’t prove necessary, though, because…
Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reappointed to position
Altman returned to the top spot at OpenAI on November 21, capping off a wild and chaotic four and a half days. He was briefly enticed away to Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, but ultimately returned, alongside Brockman, to the company they helped start.
What a whirlwind month week four and a half days.
Clorox CISO cleans out desk
After two and a half years at Clorox, CISO Amy Bogac left her position November 10, Bloomberg reported. Her departure came after an August cyberattack that severely impacted the company’s supply chain and wreaked havoc on order processing. Bogac joined the company in June 2021.
Clorox SVP and chief information and data officer Chau Banks will step in as an interim CISO as the company figures out how to shore up its cybersecurity.
Slack CEO leaves for Bumble
After a year as the top executive at Slack, CEO Lidiane Jones is moving on. Jones, who was promoted to lead the work messaging company in December 2022, will head to dating app Bumble to take over from founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Jones began her career at Microsoft and joined Salesforce, Slack’s parent company, in 2019 as an executive focused on the cloud business.
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Top insights for IT pros
From cybersecurity and big data to cloud computing, IT Brew covers the latest trends shaping business tech in our 4x weekly newsletter, virtual events with industry experts, and digital guides.