OpenAI’s new revenue chief has a simple mission: make the money match the hype
· Fortune
OpenAI’s CRO position has been in flux for, well, years.
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The most recent change came as Denise Dresser, former CEO of Slack, unexpectedly stepped away after less than a year on the job—or so she said on LinkedIn. My colleague Emily Forlini’s sources suggest OpenAI decided to let her go, its fifth C-suite shakeup in the past year, and take the position in a different direction as it races to the public markets in 2027 (apparently lagging behind Anthropic).
We didn’t expect OpenAI to hire Dali Rajic, previously president and COO at Wiz. Though he keeps a low public profile, Rajic, 53, has earned a reputation as one of the most disciplined, successful enterprise sales leaders in tech. He will play a key part in the IPO. This week, Fortune published a profile on Rajic. Here’s what he’s like, as my colleague Emily Forlini writes:
“Rajic is disciplined, blunt, and intellectual, according to four people who have worked with him previously, two of whom requested anonymity to speak freely about the increasingly influential Silicon Valley figure. Rajic declined to comment for this piece, but confirmed the accuracy of the details included here.
Rajic was born in Yugoslavia, in an area which is now Croatia, and moved to Germany when he was one year old. Growing up, he always dreamed of coming to America, and moved to the U.S. at age 16 for his last years of high school, he said on a 2022 episode of the Grit podcast. He then attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona for undergrad, followed by an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
“He is one of the most intense people you will ever meet,” one former friend and colleague of Rajic’s tells Fortune. “We would call him the Croatian Sensation. I remember we would get breakfast, and his version of breakfast was on our way to a meeting would grab two hard-boiled eggs at Starbucks, stuff them in his mouth, and be like, ‘That’s breakfast. Let’s go.’”
That good-to-go instinct will likely be vital for Rajic (and OpenAI) in the coming months, as he tries his hand at a seminal, revolving-door job. As Emily writes:
“It’ll be interesting to see if Dali is there in 12 or 18 months, or if he will burn out like so many other people do at OpenAI,” one source tells Fortune. “That’s the open question.”
And the answer, with the public markets near, matters more than ever. Read more about Rajic here.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: [email protected]
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com