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10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Bret Taylor.md
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---
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category: "Technologists"
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tags:
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- Person
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- OpenAI
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- Salesforce
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- Twitter
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- Facebook
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- Google
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- Axon
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alias:
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- Bret Taylor
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summary: "Google Maps co-creator, Facebook chief technology officer, Salesforce co-chief executive and Twitter board chair who has chaired OpenAI's board since Sam Altman's reinstatement in November 2023."
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relations:
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[OpenAI]]"
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role: "chair of the board of directors"
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start: 2023-11-29
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fn: 1
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Google]]"
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role: "group product manager"
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end: 2007-06
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fn: 2
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[FriendFeed]]"
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role: "cofounder and chief executive officer"
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start: 2007-10
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end: 2009-08
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fn: 2
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[Facebook]]"
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role: "chief technology officer"
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start: 2009-08
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end: 2012-07
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fn: 2
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Quip]]"
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role: "cofounder and chief executive officer"
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start: 2012-09
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fn: 2
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Salesforce]]"
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role: "president and chief product officer, president and chief operating officer, then vice chair and co-chief executive officer"
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start: 2017-11
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fn: 3
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[Twitter]]"
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role: "director; independent board chair from November 2021"
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start: 2016-07
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fn: 2
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[Axon Enterprise]]"
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role: "director"
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start: 2014-06
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end: 2019-06
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fn: 2
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created: 2026-09-23
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updated: 2026-09-23
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---
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Bret Taylor is a software executive who has chaired the board of [[OpenAI]] since November 2023. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from [[Stanford University]].[^1][^2]
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### Career
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According to the proxy statement [[Twitter]] filed in April 2022, Taylor was a group product manager at [[Google]] before June 2007, where he "co-created Google Maps and the Google Maps API." From June to September 2007 he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture firm [[Benchmark]], where he cofounded [[FriendFeed]], a social network he ran as chief executive from October 2007 to August 2009. He was chief technology officer of [[Facebook]] from August 2009 to July 2012, then cofounded the productivity-software company [[Quip]], which [[Salesforce]] acquired.[^2] Salesforce's proxy statement of the same month gave his Quip tenure as chief executive from September 2012 to August 2016 and as president of Quip within Salesforce from August 2016 to November 2017; Twitter's gave it as chief executive through November 2017. At Salesforce he was president and chief product officer from November 2017, president and chief operating officer from December 2019, and vice chair and co-chief executive from November 2021. The Salesforce statement gave his age as 41.[^2][^3]
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Taylor joined Twitter's board in July 2016 and became its independent board chair in November 2021. From June 2014 to June 2019 he was a director of [[Axon Enterprise]], "formerly known as TASER International," which the Twitter statement described as "a protection technologies company."[^2][^3]
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### OpenAI
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After OpenAI's board removed [[Sam Altman]] as chief executive on November 17, 2023, Altman returned on November 29 with "a new initial board" of Taylor as chair, [[Larry Summers]] and [[Adam D'Angelo]]. Altman thanked "Will Hurd, Brian Chesky, Bret Taylor and Larry Summers" for having "put their lives on hold" to support the company. In his own message to staff Taylor wrote that the board was "thrilled that Sam, Mira and Greg are back together leading the company," that it would include "a non-voting observer for [[Microsoft]]," and that it would convene "an independent committee of the Board to oversee a review of the recent events." On December 8, 2023, he announced that the committee, consisting of himself and Summers, had selected Anjan Sahni and Hallie B. Levin of [[WilmerHale]] to conduct the review.[^1]
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On March 8, 2024, the special committee announced that the review was complete and that the board expressed "full confidence" in Altman and [[Greg Brockman]]. "We have unanimously concluded that Sam and Greg are the right leaders for OpenAI," Taylor stated. The WilmerHale summary found that the prior board's decision "did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI's finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners," and that Altman's "conduct did not mandate removal." The board added [[Sue Desmond-Hellmann]], former chief executive of the [[Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation]], [[Nicole Seligman]], formerly of [[Sony]], and [[Fidji Simo]] of [[Instacart]], and Altman rejoined it.[^4] Reporting in May 2024 on an account of the removal given by the former director [[Helen Toner]], *CNBC* quoted Taylor as saying the review had found "a significant breakdown of trust between the prior board and Sam and Greg."[^5]
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On September 9, 2026, the [[OpenAI Foundation]], the nonprofit controlling OpenAI Group PBC, appointed [[Paul Christiano]], then a senior technical advisor at the federal [[U.S. AI Safety Institute|Center for AI Standards and Innovation]], to its board. Taylor, as board chair, said Christiano's "experience working on frontier AI safety and standards in government" would strengthen its oversight.[^6]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: OpenAI. "Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board." November 29, 2023, with update of December 8, 2023, archived September 13, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260913004743/https://openai.com/index/sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-openai-has-a-new-initial-board/
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[^2]: Twitter, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 12, 2022, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000114036122014049/ny20001921x3_def14a.htm
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[^3]: Salesforce, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 28, 2022, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1108524/000119312522127612/d301179ddef14a.htm
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[^4]: OpenAI. "Review completed & Altman, Brockman to continue to lead OpenAI." March 8, 2024, archived September 13, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260913014725/https://openai.com/index/review-completed-altman-brockman-to-continue-to-lead-openai/
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[^5]: "Former OpenAI board member explains why CEO Sam Altman got fired before he was rehired." *CNBC,* May 29, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/29/former-openai-board-member-explains-why-ceo-sam-altman-was-fired.html
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[^6]: OpenAI Foundation, "Paul Christiano joins OpenAI Foundation Board," September 9, 2026. https://openaifoundation.org/news/paul-christiano-joins-openai-foundation-board
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10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Nate Thomas.md
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---
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category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
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tags:
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- Person
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- AISafety
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- EffectiveAltruism
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- Longtermism
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- RedwoodResearch
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- StanfordUniversity
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alias:
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- Nathaniel Thomas
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- Nathaniel C. Thomas
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summary: "Stanford-affiliated machine-learning researcher who cofounded Redwood Research in 2021 as chief executive, later chaired its board, and led the affiliated Constellation Institute in Berkeley."
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location: "Berkeley, California"
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relations:
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Constellation Institute]]"
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role: "chief executive"
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end: 2024-07
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fn: 7
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created: 2026-09-23
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updated: 2026-09-23
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---
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Nathaniel "Nate" Thomas is a machine-learning researcher who cofounded [[Redwood Research]], the [[Berkeley]], California AI-alignment nonprofit, in 2021 and served as its chief executive and later its board chair.[^1][^2] Redwood's filings with the [[Internal Revenue Service]] are made in care of Nathaniel Thomas at 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 1200, Berkeley.[^2]
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### Stanford
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Thomas was the lead author, with [[Tess Smidt]] of the [[University of California, Berkeley]] and the [[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]] and five researchers from [[Google]] in Mountain View (Steven Kearnes, Lusann Yang, Li Li, Kai Kohlhoff and Patrick Riley), of "Tensor field networks: Rotation- and translation-equivariant neural networks for 3D point clouds," posted in February 2018. The paper gives his affiliation as [[Stanford University]].[^3] In April 2023 the pseudonymous authors of a LessWrong critique of Redwood, signed "Omega.", wrote that "CEO Nate Thomas has a Physics PhD and published some papers on ML during his PhD."[^4]
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### Redwood Research
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Announcing the organization on October 6, 2021, Thomas wrote: "Redwood Research is a longtermist research lab focusing on applied AI alignment. We're led by Nate Thomas (CEO), [[Buck Shlegeris]] (CTO), and [[Bill Zito]] (COO/software engineer); our board is Nate, [[Paul Christiano]] and [[Holden Karnofsky]]. We currently have ten people on staff."[^1] Karnofsky was then co-chief executive of [[Open Philanthropy]], which recommended "four grants totaling $9,420,000 to Redwood Research for general support" in November 2021, with [[Nick Beckstead]] as grant investigator, and gave Redwood 62.52 million dollars in all by the end of 2025.[^5][^6]
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On Redwood's return for 2021 Thomas was chief executive and president and was paid 56,250 dollars, the same as Shlegeris and Zito, with Karnofsky as unpaid treasurer and Christiano as unpaid secretary. For 2022 he was chairperson and president, paid 274,361 dollars. The return for 2023 listed him as director and board chair, Shlegeris as chief executive, and Open Philanthropy's senior program officer for AI risk, [[Ajeya Cotra]], as a director.[^2] The "Omega." critique stated: "Two of Redwood's leadership team have or have had relationships to an OP grant maker. A Redwood board member is married to a different OP grantmaker. A co-CEO of OP is one of the other three board members of Redwood."[^4]
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### Constellation
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The same critique described Constellation as an office of about 30,000 square feet run by Redwood, "hosting staff from several technical AI safety focused and longtermist EA-aligned organizations such as OP, ARC, the Atlas Fellowship, CEA and OpenAI," and stated that "OP pays Redwood for use of the space."[^4] The [[Constellation Institute]], EIN 93-2465256, a 501(c)(3) filing from Redwood's Shattuck Avenue address, listed Thomas as chief executive on its return for 2023, when it paid him 91,091 dollars while Redwood paid him 183,333 dollars, each reporting the other's payment as related-organization compensation. Its return for 2024 listed him as chief executive "thru 7/24."[^2][^7]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Thomas, Nate. "We're Redwood Research, we do applied alignment research, AMA." LessWrong, October 6, 2021, linkpost of the EA Forum original. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qHvHvBR8L6oycnMXe/we-re-redwood-research-we-do-applied-alignment-research-ama
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[^2]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Redwood Research Group Inc," EIN 87-1702255, organization record and Form 990 Part VII officer listings for fiscal years 2021 to 2024, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/871702255
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[^3]: Thomas, Nathaniel, Tess Smidt, Steven Kearnes, Lusann Yang, Li Li, Kai Kohlhoff, and Patrick Riley. "Tensor field networks: Rotation- and translation-equivariant neural networks for 3D point clouds." arXiv:1802.08219, submitted February 22, 2018, revised May 18, 2018. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.08219
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[^4]: Omega. "Critiques of prominent AI safety labs: Redwood Research." LessWrong, April 17, 2023, linkpost of the EA Forum original. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SuZ6Guuos7CjfwRQb/critiques-of-prominent-ai-safety-labs-redwood-research
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[^5]: Open Philanthropy, "Redwood Research, General Support," November 2021, archived August 11, 2022. http://web.archive.org/web/20220811081927/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/redwood-research-general-support/
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[^6]: Smith, Ben. "Coefficient Giving's CEO on Silicon Valley's $40 billion philanthropy boom." *Semafor,* September 3, 2026. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2026/coefficient-givings-ceo-on-silicon-valley-40-billion-philanthropy-boom
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[^7]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "Constellation Institute Inc," EIN 93-2465256, organization record, Form 990 data and Part VII officer listings for fiscal years 2023 and 2024, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/932465256
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