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Sarah Friar
OBE
Friar in 2018
Born
Sarah Jane Friar

(1972-12-24) 24 December 1972 (age 51)
Sion Mills, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
NationalityAmerican, British, Irish
Education
OccupationBusiness executive
Known for

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

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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

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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

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  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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.


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