Sarah Friar

Sarah Friar OBE
Friar in 2018
Born	Sarah Jane Friar (1972-12-24) 24 December 1972 (age 52) Sion Mills, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Nationality	American, British, Irish
Education	St Anne's College, Oxford (MEng) Stanford University (MBA)
Occupation	Business executive
Known for	CFO of OpenAI Former CEO of Nextdoor Former CFO of Square, Inc.

Sarah Jane Friar OBE (born 24 December 1972[1]) is an Irish-American business executive who is the chief financial officer of OpenAI since June 2024.[2] She was the chief executive officer of American technology company Nextdoor from 2018 through 2024,[3] and was chief financial officer of Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) between 2012 and 2018.[4][5][6]

Early life and education

Born in 1972, Friar grew up in the town of Sion Mills in Northern Ireland.[7][1] She attended Strabane Grammar School.[8] She graduated from the University of Oxford and Stanford Graduate School of Business.[9]

Career

She was an analyst for McKinsey,[10] a managing director in equity research at Goldman Sachs, and a senior vice president of finance and strategy at Salesforce[11] before becoming chief financial officer (CFO) at Square in 2012,[12][13][14] and then joining Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods, as the CEO in 2018. She led the company public through a special-purpose acquisition company in 2021.[15] Nextdoor announced Friar would step down as CEO in mid-2024.[16] In June 2024, she joined OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research organization that develops ChatGPT, as its first CFO.[2]

She is on the board of Walmart and ConsenSys,[17][18] and previously on Slack Technologies and New Relic's boards.[19]

She received a honorary Doctor of Science degree from Ulster University in 2018.[20] In 2019, she was granted an Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II for her commitment to entrepreneurship and financial services.[21][22]

Friar is married to David Riley, a former hedge fund partner.[11] The couple has a daughter and son.[23] She lives in Marin County, California.[1]

References

1. Nimmo, Jamie (23 January 2022). "Nextdoor chief Sarah Friar: I grew up with bombs, so I don't want to spread hate". The Times. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022.
2. "OpenAI hires former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar as first CFO". Reuters. 10 June 2024.
3. "Nextdoor Announces Leadership Transition and Reports Preliminary Q4 2023 Financial Results". Yahoo Finance. 23 February 2024. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
4. Gelles, David (13 August 2020). "A Lifetime of Seeing the Good and the Bad Between Neighbors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
5. Rudegeair, Peter (27 February 2021). "Where Nextdoor's CEO Looks for Neighborly Advice". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
6. "Nextdoor's CEO wants to do for community what Jane Fonda did for fitness". Fortune. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
7. "Tyrone's Sarah Friar leads US Nextdoor into €3.6bn Spac deal". independent. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
8. Campbell, John (5 June 2017). "Sarah Friar: From Sion Mills to Silicon Valley". BBC News.
9. "Sarah Friar". Stanford Graduate School of Business. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
10. "Sarah Friar, the neighbour-in-chief steering Nextdoor to public markets". Financial Times. 9 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
11. Cook, James (13 May 2019). "From Sion Mills to Silicon Valley: How Sarah Friar became one of the most prominent women in technology". The Daily Telegraph.
12. Wang, Selina (10 October 2018). "Square CFO Sarah Friar steps down to join Nextdoor as CEO". San Francisco Chronicle.
13. "Sarah Friar". Corporate - US. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
14. "Sarah Friar". Forbes. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
15. Lublin, Joann S. (4 September 2022). "Nextdoor's CEO Sarah Friar Is Opening Doors for Smaller Businesses". Time.
16. Savitz, Eric J. (23 February 2024). "Nextdoor Jumps as CEO Exits and Founder Takes Over. It's Buying Back More Stock". Barron's. Archived from the original on 24 February 2024.
17. "Sarah Friar". Corporate - US. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
18. Hinchliffe, Emma; Mcglauflin, Paige (8 April 2022). "The Broadsheet: a daily newsletter for and about the world's most powerful women". Forbes. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022.
19. Swisher, Kara (15 March 2017). "Slack is adding Square CFO Sarah Friar as its first independent board member". Vox.
20. "Ulster University graduations results: Honour for Silicon Valley boss Sarah Friar". Belfast Telegraph. 9 July 2018.
21. Hughes, David (23 June 2019). "Queen's birthday honours list 2019: full list of everyone being recognised this year". i.
22. "Sion Mills native awarded an OBE in Queen's Birthday Honours". Strabane Weekly News. 21 June 2019.
23. Canning, Margaret (28 February 2020). "Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar: My business has taken off in Northern Ireland as people here are so neighbourly". Belfast Telegraph.