Sarah Friar
Sarah Friar | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 24, 1972 Sion Mills, Northern Ireland |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Known for | Chief financial officer of OpenAI; former CEO of Nextdoor; former CFO of Block, Inc. |
Sarah Jane Friar (born 24 December 1972) is an Irish-American corporate leader currently holding the position of chief financial officer at OpenAI since June 2024. From 2018 until 2024, she was the chief executive officer of the American tech firm Nextdoor, and prior to that, she served as chief financial officer at Block, Inc. (previously known as Square, Inc.) from 2012 to 2018.
Early life
Friar was born in 1972 and raised in Sion Mills, Northern Ireland. She attended Strabane Grammar School and earned a scholarship from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where she worked for one year. She pursued engineering studies at University of Oxford, concentrating on metallurgy, economics, and management. Subsequently, she completed an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, graduating as an Arjay Miller scholar. During the 1990s, Friar gained practical experience through an internship at Ashanti Goldfields, working at a gold mining operation in Ghana.
Career
Her professional journey began as an analyst with McKinsey in South Africa. She later held the role of managing director in equity research at Goldman Sachs and served as senior vice president responsible for finance and strategy at Salesforce. In 2012, Friar was appointed CFO of Square, Inc., and in 2018 she took on the CEO role at Nextdoor, a social networking platform focused on local communities. Under her leadership, Nextdoor went public via a special-purpose acquisition company in 2021. Friar announced plans to step down as CEO in mid-2024 and subsequently became OpenAI’s inaugural CFO in June 2024.
She holds board memberships with Walmart and ConsenSys, having previously served on the boards of Slack Technologies and New Relic. Additionally, Friar co-chairs Stanford's Digital Economy Lab and is a co-founder of Ladies Who Launch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs.
Her accolades include an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Ulster University awarded in 2018 and being appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 2019 for her achievements in entrepreneurship and financial services.
Personal life
Friar is married to David Riley, a former hedge fund partner. They have two children and live in Marin County, California.
References
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- Living people
- American business executives
- People from County Tyrone
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- Stanford University alumni
- OpenAI people
- McKinsey & Company people
- Goldman Sachs people
- Salesforce people
- 1972 births
- Businesspeople from Northern Ireland
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire