An MD who left banking for Coinbase is now joining OpenAI
Plenty of people want to leave financial services to work for an AI lab. While this is mainly the realm of quants and trading firm staff, banking managing directors are capable of making the switch too. OpenAI, for example, just hired an ex-Credit Suisse MD who has spent the last four years at a fintech.
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Tom Duff Gordon joined OpenAI in London as its EMEA head of policy. He spent the past four years at crypto exchange Coinbase, where he was a VP of international policy. He previously spent fifteen years at Credit Suisse, where he was latterly an MD for government relations regulatory policy in the EU and UK.
OpenAI's policy team is predominantly made up of Big Tech alums and people from other labs like Deepmind. It curiously has also made multiple hires from Airbnb; Brian Chesky, CEO of the travel app, is reportedly close to Sam Altman and was one of its earliest advisors regarding public policy.
AI policy has become a hot topic after the Catholic Church released an encyclical calling for increased scrutiny of the technology. Pope Leo specifically criticised AI's usage in war and its ability to spread political misinformation.
There are other areas of AI policy which may become increasingly important, including employee rights as the technology is used to justify mass layoffs. Coinbase, Gordon's previous employer, laid of 14% of staff earlier this week so that it could become more AI-native.
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