Redmond, WA, December 17, 2023 – Though it was a frenetic weekend at the end of November for OpenAI, with Sam Altman rejoining as CEO within a few days, Mary Snapp, vice president of strategic initiatives at Microsoft, stated that the best outcome, featuring improved governance and a new board, emerged. 

Describing it as perhaps the most significant boardroom drama in recent technology history, Mary shared these insights during a panel discussion on 'Responsible AI' at CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol’s Global AI Conclave on December 16, alongside Sindhu Gangadharan, senior vice president and managing director at SAP Labs India. 

When asked about the events of that weekend, Mary honestly revealed, “It is true that the Microsoft executives, including Satya, were as surprised as anyone. We learned about this at Microsoft only a few minutes before the media. We regrouped very quickly and reached out to the interim president, who was made the president for a weekend – to offer our support to Sam and his executive team. We were in close touch with their legal and global policy teams throughout the weekend and into the wee hours of the night and morning.”

“We thought the best approach now would be to have CEO Sam Altman back at the helm with a different role – where he was no longer on the board but a stronger governance and new board members came in place. I think this is the best possible outcome,” she added.

Mary views governance as "quite glamorous." She finds it very exciting to contemplate the significance of governance within a company.

The intense boardroom battle was closely watched by Microsoft, which has invested $12 billion in OpenAI.

During the high-stakes drama that left Microsoft officials on edge, CEO Satya Nadella reportedly attempted to ease tension by updating colleagues about the World Cup cricket match between India and Australia on November 18, as per media reports.

In response, Mary chuckled and commented, “Well, I read that The New Yorker article too...I was getting ready to go to the US for Thanksgiving holidays when the Sam Altman news broke. And my thought immediately was that my boss Brad Smith – he just lost his holidays.”

“As a lawyer myself, I thought their (OpenAI’s) intellectual property lawyers might be busy, the merger and acquisition lawyers must be busy, their HR lawyers were probably busy. My understanding is that it was a very hectic weekend for them,” she added.

The quotes used in this piece were sourced from Moneycontrol, India’s number one financial and business portal.