OpenAI announced on Friday, there was a major reorganization as the company’s AGI implementation general manager, Fidji Simo, takes medical leave to focus on her health. OpenAI CEO Greg Brockman will lead the product teams in Simo’s absence. Simo’s previous position was as General Manager of Applications.
Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer and one of CEO Sam Altman’s top deputies, is moving to a “special projects” role. Kate Rouch, chief marketing officer, is taking time off to focus on her health. Rouch is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. When he returns, he will play a “different, narrower role,” according to a note Simo shared with OpenAI employees and seen by WIRED.
“As I said when I joined, I had a neuroimmune disease flare-up a few weeks before I started,” Simo said in a note sent to OpenAI’s “primary” Slack channel. “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster since then, and the last month has been particularly difficult health-wise. Throughout my stay here, I’ve been putting off medical tests and new therapies to focus entirely on work and not miss a single day of work. I took two weeks off for the first time before taking a break for medical tests and it’s now clear that I’ve gone a little too far and really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health.”
According to its internal position, Simo is to take “a few weeks” of leave.
In his up-to-date role, Lightcap will be responsible for the company’s forward-deployed engineers who, among other things, work in enterprise organizations and lend a hand integrate OpenAI technology.
Simo said OpenAI will begin searching for a up-to-date CMO. The company is also looking for a communications director to replace Hannah Wong, who left the role in January. Chris Lehane has taken over as communications team leader on an interim basis.
“We have a strong leadership team focused on our highest priorities: advancing pioneering research, growing our global user base of nearly 1 billion users, and supporting enterprise applications,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “We are well prepared to continue our activities with continuity and dynamics.”
Simo joined OpenAI in August 2025, where she acquired many of the company’s consumer-facing products, including ChatGPT, Codex, and social video app Sora. She recently shut down the Sora app and told employees the company needed to cut back on side projects and focus on its core products.
The decision comes after OpenAI plans an IPO later this year. The company recently raised $122 billion in the largest financing round in the history of the tech industry, which valued the company at $852 billion.