OpenAI CMO to Take Leave Following Breast Cancer Diagnosis
OpenAI Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Kate Rouch will take a three-month medical leave after announcing today that she has been undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer since shortly after joining OpenAI in December.
In a LinkedIn post, Rouch said her prognosis is excellent and that she plans to fully focus on healing. She added that Meta's former CMO, Gary Briggs, will serve as interim head of marketing during her leave.
"Earlier this year-just weeks into my dream job-I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. We moved to SF on days' notice for treatment, arriving Super Bowl Sunday," Rouch wrote. "For the past five months, I've been undergoing chemo at UCSF while leading our marketing team. It's been the hardest season of life-for me, my husband, and our two young kids."
OpenAI Hires Instacart CEO Fidji Simo as Head of Applications
Rouch joined OpenAI in December after serving as Coinbase's CMO.
Prior to that she spent over a decade at Meta, rising to vice president and global head of brand and product marketing, where she led marketing for the company's core platforms-including Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook-and worked alongside Briggs.
"Silicon Valley can be sharp-edged-fast, competitive, transactional. But getting sick revealed something deeper," Rouch wrote. "We're not cogs in the same machine-we're waves from the same sea."
ADWEEK has reached out to OpenAI for comment.
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