OpenAI Taps Uber’s Jill Hazelbaker as Corporate Affairs Chief

OpenAI announced on November 3, 2026, that Jill Hazelbaker will join from Uber as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. The role will give her responsibility for worldwide communications and the company’s corporate positioning.

Working with leaders throughout OpenAI, she will be tasked with improving public understanding of AI and building trust in the company’s mission. The appointment also adds leadership and capacity for deeper engagement with the people and institutions influencing AI’s future, bringing communications and corporate positioning together within that effort.

Public Trust as a Leadership Priority

Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s co-founder and president, said Hazelbaker offers the judgment and leadership experience needed for both the opportunities and obligations of developing technology used around the world. On the role’s importance, he added: “As AI becomes part of more people’s lives, how we communicate, engage, and earn public trust has never been more important.”

Her nearly two decades advising technology companies and political leaders include periods of substantial growth and high-stakes challenges. That background spans corporate communications, public policy and political campaigns, while her executive responsibilities at Uber extended into safety and workforce functions.

A Decade at Uber

Hazelbaker’s most recent role at Uber was President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. Over a decade there, her work included reputation management, complex regulatory challenges and building the organizational capabilities required for international expansion. OpenAI credits her with helping turn Uber from an ambitious startup into one of the world’s largest global technology platforms.

Her Uber responsibilities went beyond communications. Global communications, marketing, public policy, safety and people teams all sat within her remit; Uber’s leadership biography additionally identifies human resources, recruiting and real estate as functions she led. The portfolio therefore spanned public messaging and regulatory engagement as well as workforce operations and company real estate.

Earlier Technology and Political Roles

Her pre-Uber career included leadership of communications and public policy at Snap. She previously worked in senior Google roles covering worldwide corporate communications, communications throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and European government relations. Those jobs built experience in corporate messaging and government relations before her Uber portfolio expanded into other functions.

Hazelbaker started in U.S. politics, taking leadership positions on local, state and national campaigns. She directed national communications and served as chief spokesperson for Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. She subsequently worked as press secretary to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg during his successful 2009 re-election campaign.

Hazelbaker called AI “the most profound technological shift of our lifetime,” said building public trust has never been more consequential, and welcomed the chance to work with Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and the team they have assembled.

The appointment makes public trust an explicit part of a remit that joins worldwide communications with corporate positioning. It also brings political, regulatory, safety and workforce experience to OpenAI’s effort to improve public understanding as AI becomes part of more people’s lives.