OpenAI hires former Claude Code product lead Cat Wu

Catherine “Cat” Wu is moving from Anthropic to OpenAI, where she will lead product management for Core Products. Wu announced the move on November 5, 2026, bringing experience leading product for Claude Code to her new employer. Her stated priority is building agents that help individuals and teams while keeping users in control.

A new role, with agents at the center

In her post on X, Wu said she was excited to work with Thibault Sottiaux and OpenAI’s product management team. The Decoder identifies Sottiaux as the head of Codex and ChatGPT and reports that he welcomed her with a one-word reply: “CatGPT.”

Wu’s explanation for choosing OpenAI emphasized both its technical approach and its product priorities. She praised the company for demonstrating that scaling works and for treating great products as central to its mission. She also credited it with bringing AI to more than a billion people. Her description of the work ahead focused on giving people time back.

Together, we’ll build agents that have your back and your team’s, and keep you in control, so you get more time for the people and work you love.

Cat Wu, in her OpenAI joining announcement on X

From manual approvals to delegated work

Wu’s account of Claude Code’s development describes a shift in how much work users were willing to delegate, not simply a change in the tasks the software could perform.

As recounted by The Decoder, Wu said she joined Anthropic two years earlier, when Claude Code was still a small internal tool. Most users then approved each permission request by hand. That put individual approvals at the center of the interaction.

By her description, the default later became trusting Claude’s judgment. She said Claude now handles large migrations and builds new products. Her OpenAI announcement offers a product direction, rather than a new agent release. She closed the post by asking users to keep sending feedback.