Sam Altman Rejoins an Expanded OpenAI Board of Directors

Following the conclusion of an outside investigation into his earlier firing and rehiring, Sam Altman has returned to the OpenAI board of directors alongside three new directors: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nicole Seligman, a former executive vice preisdent and general counsel at Sony Corporation, and Fidji Simo, the CEO and chairman of Instacart.

“Sue, Nicole, and Fidji have experience in leading global organizations and navigating complex regulatory environments, including backgrounds in technology, nonprofit, and board governance,” OpenAI explains. “They will work closely with current board members Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers and Bret Taylor as well as Sam and OpenAI’s senior management.”

OpenAI had previously revealed that it would expand its board, but Altman’s return is a bit of a surprise. As you may recall, the board fired Altman as CEO over four months ago and then quickly rehired him in the wake of a mass employee revolt. Today, OpenAI also released the conclusions of an independent outside review of that incident that involved dozens of interviews and reviewing over 30,000 documents.

The conclusion? The board was wrong to terminate Altman and president Greg Brockman.

“There was a breakdown in trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman that precipitated the events of November 17,” OpenAI says. “Mr. Altman’s conduct did not mandate removal … the Special Committee expressed its full confidence in Mr. Altman and Mr. Brockman’s ongoing leadership of OpenAI.”

The new board immediately adopted important changes to OpenAI’s governance structure, adopting a new set of corporate governance guidelines, strengthening its conflict of interest policy, creating a whistle blower hot-line, and adding additional board committees, one of which will focus on implementing and advancing the core mission of OpenAI.