About Sarah

Co-Founder of Ladies Who Launch

CFO of OpenAI

Two women sitting in blue armchairs engaging in conversation in a modern, minimalistic room.
A group of five females, four young girls and one adult woman, standing together and smiling at an indoor event.
A woman with shoulder-length dark hair smiling and speaking at a podium during an event, wearing a red dress. Behind her is a backdrop with logos for Allstate Northern Ireland and Women Who Launch, with an audience in front.
Three women engaged in conversation at an indoor event, with one woman wearing a black outfit and pearl necklace, another wearing an orange top with a name tag, and the third woman with blonde hair and a black jacket.

Sarah Friar is the Chief Financial Officer of OpenAI. Before joining OpenAI, Sarah served as Chief Executive Officer of Nextdoor from 2018 to 2024, and as Chief Financial Officer of Block (formerly Square) between 2012 and 2018. Before her tenure at Block, Sarah served as SVP of Finance & Strategy at Salesforce, she held executive roles at Goldman Sachs and started her career at McKinsey in London and South Africa.

Sarah currently sits on the board of directors of Walmart and Consensys, as well as on the advisory boards of HOPE Global, the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and the Digital Economy Lab at Stanford University. She previously served as a director of Nextdoor, Slack and New Relic.

Sarah grew up in Northern Ireland and earned her MEng in Metallurgy, Economics, and Management from the University of Oxford and her MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where she graduated as an Arjay Miller scholar. She also holds an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for services to entrepreneurship. Download Sarah’s photo