Slack CEO Denise Dresser Joins OpenAI as Chief Revenue Officer

OpenAI has hired Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack since 2023, as its new chief revenue officer. WIRED first reported the move, citing multiple sources and a note from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to staff. Dresser starts next week and reports to OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap. She will handle the enterprise unit, which grew fast this year.

Dresser’s Track Record at Slack and Salesforce

Dresser spent 14 years at Salesforce, owner of Slack since its $28 billion acquisition in 2021. Before Slack CEO, she held sales executive roles there. At Slack, founded in 2013 as a chat tool, she rolled out AI features like meeting summaries and ties to Salesforce AI agents. Rob Seaman, Slack’s chief product officer, steps in as interim CEO.

Her Role and OpenAI’s Push

As CRO, Dresser oversees revenue strategy for enterprise and customer success, per Engadget, Seeking Alpha, Investing.com and Stocktwits. OpenAI faces big costs for data centers and AI processing amid partnerships for servers. COINTURK Finance notes she will drive revenue and AI adoption, with OpenAI serving over a million business customers via tools like ChatGPT for Work.

Why OpenAI Picked Her

Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s head of applications, said Dresser led similar changes before and can make AI useful for businesses. “We’re on a path to put AI tools into the hands of millions of workers, across every industry,” Simo told WIRED. Dresser said she looks forward to helping OpenAI grow in enterprise, drawing from her sales team builds at Salesforce.

Her sales background fits OpenAI’s need to fund data center builds while scaling ChatGPT against rivals.