Slack CEO Joins OpenAI as Chief Revenue Officer Amid Expansion Push
Denise Dresser, the architect behind Slack’s revenue surge from $277 million to over $1.4 billion annually, steps into OpenAI’s leadership vacuum. Her appointment signals a commercial pivot for the AI pioneer, prioritizing monetization as enterprise adoption accelerates. This move arrives just months after OpenAI’s restructuring into a for-profit entity, aiming to fuel growth beyond research frontiers.
Dresser, 48, will oversee global sales, partnerships, and customer success starting January 2026. She joins from Salesforce-owned Slack, where she spearheaded integrations with tools like Zoom and Google Workspace, boosting user retention by 35 percent through AI-enhanced features. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised her track record, stating, “Denise’s ability to scale innovative platforms will be instrumental in making our AI accessible and profitable at enterprise scale.”
OpenAI’s revenue hit $3.7 billion in fiscal 2025, driven by ChatGPT Enterprise subscriptions at $60 per user monthly. Dresser’s mandate includes expanding API access for developers and forging alliances with cloud providers like AWS and Azure. The company projects $11 billion in 2026 revenue, targeting sectors like finance and healthcare where custom models demand tailored pricing.
This hire follows high-profile departures, including CTO Mira Murati and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, amid internal debates over commercialization speed. OpenAI now employs over 1,200 staff, with 40 percent in sales and operations roles. Dresser’s experience navigating Salesforce’s $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack in 2021 positions her to integrate OpenAI’s tech into broader ecosystems.
Enterprise clients, numbering 80 percent of Fortune 500 firms, seek governance features like data isolation and audit logs. Dresser plans to launch tiered plans, including a $200-per-user premium with advanced reasoning capabilities from GPT-5 previews. Integration with Microsoft 365, already live for 1 million seats, will extend to Salesforce CRM, leveraging her prior networks.
Challenges loom in a crowded market, with Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini vying for developer mindshare. OpenAI’s API usage surged 150 percent year-over-year, but margins hover at 25 percent due to compute costs exceeding $5 billion. Dresser aims to optimize through efficient inference engines, targeting 40 percent margins by 2027.
For U.S. businesses, this underscores AI’s maturation from novelty to necessity, with 65 percent of executives citing integration barriers per Gartner surveys. OpenAI’s valuation, post-$6.6 billion funding round at $157 billion, hinges on sustained enterprise traction. Dresser’s playbook from Slack—focusing on workflow automation—could accelerate adoption in productivity suites.
The transition at Slack sees co-founder Eric Costello elevated to CEO, maintaining stability amid Salesforce’s 15 percent workforce cuts earlier this year. OpenAI’s board, restructured in November 2024, now emphasizes fiduciary duties alongside safety protocols. Altman noted, “We’re building not just the best AI, but the most trusted commercial partner.”
This leadership infusion aligns with OpenAI’s roadmap for multimodal agents, capable of handling voice, video, and code tasks. Pilot programs with banks like JPMorgan test these for fraud detection, promising 20 percent efficiency gains. Dresser’s revenue lens will prioritize ROI metrics, such as cost-per-query reductions via optimized hardware partnerships.
As AI permeates U.S. operations—projected to add $15.7 trillion to GDP by 2030 per PwC—OpenAI’s commercial strategy under Dresser could redefine vendor dynamics. Enterprises demand SLAs guaranteeing 99.99 percent uptime, which OpenAI now commits to for top tiers. Her tenure may bridge the gap between hype and deployment, solidifying OpenAI’s enterprise foothold.
