May 4, 2026

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Welcome to The Capital Whisperer, where we track shifts in political influence through the AI-I™, Advanced Influencer Intelligence, scoring system—our data-driven index that ranks influence from 0 to 100 based on relationship type, duration, and proximity to decision-makers.

Some Chiefs End Up Across the Table

In January 2026, OpenAI announced a newly created executive role: Vice President of Global Policy. The hire was Ann O'Leary, the former first chief of staff to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

The move places one of Newsom's most senior former aides at the policy helm of the most prominent artificial intelligence company in the world, headquartered in San Francisco and operating under California law.

The Foundation

Newsom was elected Governor of California on November 6, 2018. Three days later, he announced O'Leary as his incoming chief of staff. She arrived in Sacramento with a deep federal résumé that included service on the Domestic Policy Council under Bill Clinton, time as Hillary Clinton's legislative director in the U.S. Senate, and a senior policy role on Clinton's 2016 campaign. Newsom asked her to manage his transition into office and to run the day-to-day of his administration.

Inside the Office

As chief of staff from January 2019 through December 2020, O'Leary controlled access to the governor, managed information flow, and helped translate his agenda into policy. Her tenure spanned record wildfires, the PG&E bankruptcy, and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. She co-chaired the Governor's Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery, a panel of roughly 100 CEOs and civic leaders convened during the pandemic, and led the administration's energy strike team.

Initiatives developed during her tenure included expansions to California's Earned Income Tax Credit and paid family leave program, and the 2020 executive order setting a 2035 deadline for zero-emission new car sales.

Across The Table

O'Leary resigned in December 2020 and was succeeded by Jim DeBoo. She joined the law firm Jenner & Block in 2021 as a founding partner of its San Francisco office before moving to OpenAI in January 2026.

The timing is notable. In September 2025, Governor Newsom signed SB 53, one of the first enforceable state-level frameworks for governing frontier AI models, with OpenAI among the companies directly subject to it. OpenAI had previously written to the governor's office urging California to harmonize its rules with federal standards. In her new role, O'Leary now leads OpenAI's global policy engagement, including with the office she once ran.

AI-I™ Influencer Score Context:

Ann O'Leary: 🔥 95/100

This score reflects two years of extraordinary, daily proximity to a sitting governor, followed by a current role that places her in regular policy dialogue with that same office from the private sector. As Newsom's first chief of staff, O'Leary held the seat most directly responsible for translating gubernatorial intent into government action. Few people in the country have a deeper working knowledge of how decisions move through his office.

In her current position at OpenAI, O'Leary represents one of the most heavily regulated companies in California to a governor whose office she once helped build. The score sits below the range of current staff embedded in daily decision-making. What keeps it elevated is the durability of that institutional memory and the direct relevance of her current portfolio to her former one.

Have you ever watched someone leave a job and find that their relationship to the place only deepened?

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