---
category: "Technologists"
tags:
  - Person
  - OpenAI
  - Quora
  - Facebook
  - Asana
summary: "Founder and chief executive of Quora and Facebook's chief technology officer from 2006 to 2008, an OpenAI director since 2018 who voted to remove Sam Altman in 2023 and kept his seat."
relations:
  - type: founded
    with: "[[Quora]]"
    start: 2009-06
    fn: 1
  - type: head_of
    with: "[[Quora]]"
    role: "chief executive officer"
    start: 2009-06
    fn: 1
  - type: employed_by
    with: "[[Facebook]]"
    role: "senior roles, including chief technology officer from November 2006"
    start: 2005-06
    end: 2008-06
    fn: 1
  - type: member_of
    with: "[[OpenAI]]"
    role: "director"
    start: 2018-04
    fn: 3
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Adam D'Angelo founded [[Quora]], the question-and-answer platform, and has been its chief executive since June 2009. From June 2005 to June 2008 he held "a variety of senior roles" at [[Facebook]], now [[Meta Platforms]], including chief technology officer from November 2006 to June 2008.[^1]

### Asana

D'Angelo was a director of [[Asana]], the software company founded by the Facebook co-founder [[Dustin Moskovitz]] and [[Justin Rosenstein]], from December 2008. The company's proxy statement of April 2026 reported that he had "informed the Company that he will not stand for re-election." The same statement listed among related-person transactions for the year to January 31, 2026, 300,000 dollars of AI services Asana bought from [[OpenAI]], noting that "Adam D'Angelo, a member of our Board, is a member of OpenAI's Board of Directors," and subscriptions it sold to Quora.[^1] In October 2023 *[[Politico]]*, describing the network of AI-policy grantees of Moskovitz's [[Open Philanthropy]], noted that in 2016 [[Sam Altman]] had led a 50-million-dollar investment in Asana, that Open Philanthropy had given OpenAI 30 million dollars in 2017, and that "Asana and OpenAI also share a board member in Adam D'Angelo."[^2]

### OpenAI

D'Angelo joined OpenAI's board in April 2018, writing at the time: "I continue to think that work toward general AI (with safety in mind) is both important and underappreciated." In January 2023 he told *[[Forbes]]* that one of OpenAI's strengths was its capped-profit structure under nonprofit control: "There's no outcome where this organization is one of the big five technology companies. This is something that's fundamentally different, and my hope is that we can do a lot more good for the world than just become another corporation that gets that big." According to OpenAI's own description of its structure, its directors held no equity in the company and received no other compensation.[^3]

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI announced that Altman would leave as chief executive and leave the board after "a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." The announcement gave the board as "OpenAI chief scientist [[Ilya Sutskever]], independent directors Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, technology entrepreneur [[Tasha McCauley]], and [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology|Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology]]'s [[Helen Toner]]," and stated that [[Greg Brockman]] would step down as chairman while remaining at the company; [[Mira Murati]] was named interim chief executive.[^4]

On November 29, 2023, Altman announced his return and wrote that "the new initial board will consist of [[Bret Taylor]] (Chair), [[Larry Summers]], and Adam D'Angelo." He thanked "Adam, Tasha, and Helen for working with us to come to this solution that best serves the mission," and added: "I'm excited to continue to work with Adam and am sincerely thankful to Helen and Tasha for investing a huge amount of effort in this process." He also thanked [[Emmett Shear]], who had "a key and constructive role in helping us reach this outcome." Of the four directors who had removed Altman, D'Angelo was the only one on the new board; Sutskever, McCauley and Toner left it.[^5]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Asana, Inc. Schedule 14A definitive proxy statement, filed April 20, 2026, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000162828026025998/asan-20260420.htm
[^2]: Bordelon, Brendan. "How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington." *Politico,* October 13, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20250902172514/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362
[^3]: Konrad, Alex, and Sarah Emerson. "These Are The People That Fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman." *Forbes,* November 17, 2023, archived November 18, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231118075941/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/17/these-are-the-people-that-fired-openai-ceo-sam-altman/
[^4]: OpenAI. "OpenAI announces leadership transition." November 17, 2023, archived November 17, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231117210540/https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition
[^5]: OpenAI. "Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board." November 29, 2023, archived November 30, 2023. http://web.archive.org/web/20231130020514/https://openai.com/blog/sam-altman-returns-as-ceo-openai-has-a-new-initial-board