Tyrone woman takes top job at world-leading tech company

A Tyrone business woman has scooped a top tier job with one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies.

Sarah Friar, originally from Sion Mills was recently named chief financial officer at American tech company OpenAI.

Ms Friar is a former CEO of Nextdoor, a prominent social networking service and her impressive CV also includes pivotal roles at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Salesforce.

She is currently a board member of Walmart and Consensys; she is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and co-chair of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

exciting

Speaking of her new role Ms Friar said that she wanted to ensure that Open AI continued to develop new and exciting products.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 but shot to prominence following the development of ChatGPT, its large language learning machine and web interface.

“I’m honoured to join a team that is uniquely talented and mission-focused,” Ms Friar said.

“My goal is to help OpenAI continue excelling at what it does best – producing top-tier research and collaborating to maximize the benefits of AI tools for everyone.”

experience

Also commenting on her appointment was OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He said, “Sarah (brings) a depth of experience that will enable OpenAI to scale our operations, set a strategy for the next phase of growth, and ensure that our teams have the resources they need to continue to thrive.”

Ms Friar grew up in Sion Mills is the daughter of Harry and May Friar. She attended Strabane Grammar School in the 1980s and is an allumnus of Oxford and Standford universities.

In 2019, she was granted an OBE for her commitment to entrepreneurship and financial services.

She is married to David Riley, a former hedge fund partner. The couple has a daughter and son and the family lives in Marin County, California.