Grey Matter

Sarah Friar: Chief Financial Officer, OpenAI

What is Experience Worth in the Age of AI?

Every CEO is being asked to make decisions about AI before there is a reliable playbook for what comes next.

Where to invest. How to create business value. Which risks to take. What to automate. And what should remain fundamentally human.

That makes experience a more complicated asset. The past may offer fewer obvious answers, but the judgment built through years of operating across different environments may become even more valuable.

Few executives embody that challenge better than Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI.

Her career has taken her from metallurgy and mining in Ghana to Goldman Sachs, Salesforce, Block, Nextdoor and now OpenAI. She describes it as a series of “zigs and zags,” but each move gave her another reference point for navigating unfamiliar problems.

Today, she is applying that experience inside a company whose economics and capabilities are evolving in real time, while businesses everywhere are being forced to rethink software, talent, cybersecurity and the architecture of work.

In this episode of Grey Matter, Sarah joins Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss how leaders make decisions when precedent becomes less reliable, how AI is already creating real business value, and why the ability to distinguish what should change from what should endure may become one of the most important advantages experience can provide.

In this episode, Sarah addresses:

How CEOs should make decisions about AI when there is no reliable playbook for what comes next
Why judgment becomes more valuable as intelligence becomes more abundant
How AI is already translating into real business value, from productivity gains to revenue growth and new operating models
Why the faster an organization moves, the more important it becomes to know what should endure
How a career of “zigs and zags” built the pattern recognition she now relies on at OpenAI

The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Consello Group. Consello is not responsible for and has not verified for accuracy any of the information contained herein. Any discussion of general market activity, industry or sector trends, or other broad-based economic, market, political or regulatory conditions should not be construed as research or advice and should not be relied upon. In addition, nothing in these materials constitutes a guarantee, projection or prediction of future events or results.

Sarah Friar

Chief Financial Officer, OpenAI

Sarah Jane Friar OBE is a British-Irish and American business executive, who has been the chief financial officer of OpenAI since June 2024. She was the chief executive officer of American technology company Nextdoor from 2018 to 2024 and the CFO of Block, Inc. from 2012 to 2018.

HOST

Declan Kelly

Founder, Chairman and CEO

Declan Kelly is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Consello. He is an advisor to many of the world’s leading companies and CEOs.

Prior to founding Consello, Declan was the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Teneo. During his ten-year leadership, Teneo became one of the world’s leading advisory firms.

From 2009-2011 he served as the U.S Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland at the U.S Department of State, appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In this role he is recognized as having helped bring significant investment to the region and played a significant role in supporting the efforts that led to the historic devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly, giving Northern Ireland fully devolved governance for the first time in its modern history.

Prior to his government service, Declan held senior leadership roles at FTI Consulting and Financial Dynamics, two leading international consulting companies. He previously started, co-ran, and sold his own consulting company in Ireland called Gallagher & Kelly. Before that he worked as an award-winning journalist for more than a decade.

Declan has been recognized on several occasions for his philanthropic and nonprofit work and his public service.

In 2008 he became the youngest ever recipient of the American Irish Historical Society’s prestigious Gold Medal, presented annually to one person deemed to have made a unique contribution to Irish American society.

In 2012 he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, presented to individuals of different ethnic backgrounds who distinguish themselves by their contributions to society in the United States.

He is an honorary visiting professor in management and leadership at Queen’s University, Belfast, where he received an honorary doctorate in 2011 for his contribution to the community and economy of Northern Ireland. For the last decade he has overseen the Northern Ireland Mentorship Program which has enabled more than 100 students to date to spend a year working inside leading U.S. corporations before launching new careers in Northern Ireland.

Declan has served on numerous nonprofit boards over the last two decades and has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars during that time on behalf of worthy causes and organizations. Declan is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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