Sam Altman tapped for Lurie’s transition team

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie named OpenAI boss Sam Altman on Monday to his transition team, pledging to build a government rooted in accountability and change.

“I’m excited to introduce this talented and diverse team who will help guide our transition and lay the groundwork for the change San Franciscans demand,” Lurie said.

The transition team will counsel Lurie and his advisors as they build relationships with city agencies, develop partnerships, assemble leadership, and create 100-day plans with accountability metrics. The first mayor to have no governmental experience in more than a century, Lurie has promised to bring a “world-class” slate of leaders into City Hall.

Altman previously ran Y Combinator, a tech startup incubator, and lives in San Francisco. The campaign told The Standard that it hopes Altman contributes to the city’s downtown recovery and helps implement artificial intelligence technology at City Hall.

Earlier this year, Altman declined a pitch from sitting Mayor London Breed to help fund the city’s $25 million project to bring pandas from China.

Other co-chairs on the team have governmental and private-sector experience.

Joanne Hayes-White was San Francisco’s first female fire chief, from 2004 to 2019. She increased diversity, improved community safety programs, and served on national public safety boards.

José A. Quiñonez, Mission Asset Fund’s founding CEO, who has been recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship, has developed financial inclusion programs for marginalized communities.

Ned Segal, who co-chaired Lurie’s mayoral campaign, served as Twitter’s CFO. He began his career at Goldman Sachs.

Michael Tubbs, former Stockton mayor, gained national attention for promoting universal basic income. He now advises California Gov. Gavin Newsom on economic mobility.

Two Asian Americans are on the transition team, Nancy Tung and Paul Yep. Lurie garnered massive support from Asian voters, a critical voting bloc that helped propel him to the mayor’s office.

Tung, a 24-year prosecutor, leads the Vulnerable Victims Unit at the San Francisco district attorney’s office and chairs the San Francisco Democratic Party. She told The Standard in a text message that she’s “honored to be part of Mayor-Elect Lurie’s transition team and excited to get started.”

While Tung was seen as an ally to Breed, she voted for Lurie as her second choice in the Democratic Party endorsement meeting, breaking ties with others on the board who solely endorsed the incumbent mayor.

Yep, a retired police commander, was one of the most prominent early supporters of Lurie and previously hinted that he may return to city government and join the mayor’s administration.

Multiple members of the transition team declined to comment.

The campaign told The Standard that there is no timetable for finalizing senior positions such as chief of staff.

For those interested in joining his administration, Lurie has circulated a Google form for people to apply. According to the form, which generated considerable interest from current city staffers, his team is aiming to build a staff that “mirrors the diversity, creativity, and compassion of the people who live here.”

During the mayor’s race, Lurie criticized his opponents for being City Hall insiders and beholden to special interests. A frustrated voter base, combined with nearly $10 million of his own money injected into the race, helped Lurie make political history.

A founder of Tipping Point, an anti-poverty nonprofit, Lurie was also chair of the Super Bowl host committee in 2016. He is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune through his now-deceased stepfather, Peter Haas.

Mayoral transition teams are chiefly ceremonial. Breed’s 2018 team, for instance, included people who volunteered or donated to her campaign or were vocal supporters in the press.

Breed’s first transition team was co-chaired by Mary Jung, who helped raise thousands from the Realtors Association; Pius Lee, a former police commissioner who hyped the campaign in Chinatown; Suzy Loftus, a former police commissioner whom Breed would later appoint as district attorney; and Sheryl Davis, whom she described as a “friend,” who in September resigned from the Human Rights Commission amid scandal.