OpenAI Communications Chief Exits

Another one bites the dust. OpenAI has received another massive leadership shake-up.
Hannah Wong, the executive who steered OpenAI through its most chaotic period, has announced she’s leaving the company.
Wong announced the news on LinkedIn. She was only promoted to chief communications officer four months ago, yet she’s already heading for the exit.
“After nearly five years at OpenAI and a lot of reflection, I’ve decided it’s time for me to step back and move into my next chapter. There’s never a good or easy moment to say goodbye to a place you care so deeply about, but as we head into 2026 — coming off ChatGPT’s third birthday and with a strong, exciting roadmap for the year ahead — this feels like the right time,” she says.
Lindsey Held Bolton will lead the Communications team in the interim, while Kate Rouch runs a search for the next Chief Communications Officer. Wong says she will have a break “before deciding what comes next.”
The crisis
Wong became absolutely crucial during a dramatic five-day crisis in November 2023 when CEO Sam Altman was fired and then reinstated. She was instrumental in managing the PR nightmare that nearly destroyed the company overnight.
The numbers from that crisis show that 93% of employees threatened to quit, and ChatGPT faced the real possibility of imploding completely. Wong navigated this chaos while the company teetered on the edge of organizational collapse.
She also led the communications team as ChatGPT exploded from a research project into one of the world’s largest consumer products, with the user base reportedly reaching 800 million just eight months ago.
Departures
Wong’s exit continues a troubling pattern that has plagued OpenAI throughout 2024.
Four months ago, co-founder John Schulman joined rival Anthropic while another co-founder Greg Brockman took a sabbatical.
Then in September, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and two other research leaders announced departures, creating a significant brain drain from the company’s leadership ranks.
Tom Cunningham, an economics researcher, also left in September after growing frustrated with limits around publishing certain kinds of work.
OpenAI’s ongoing instability
This leadership instability comes at a crucial time when OpenAI needs steady guidance to maintain its position as the leading AI company while managing increasing competition, regulatory scrutiny, and the complex transition from research lab to commercial powerhouse.
What started as individual departures is now revealing a broader pattern.
In happier news, ChatGPT officially become the most downloaded app of 2025 on Apple’s App Store in the US.
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