By Katherine Hamilton
Oklo announced a series of leadership changes, including naming a new lead independent director and four new board members.
The nuclear-energy company, which is developing a small modular reactor, also said it is transitioning its chief technology officer, Pat Schweiger, to a senior technical advisory role over the coming weeks.
The changes are part of Oklo's efforts to bring on more technical and execution experience, as the company moves toward deployment, the company said.
"To capitalize on the scale of opportunity, we are bringing additional technical and execution experience to our Board and our team," Chief Executive Jacob DeWitte said.
The changes also come a year after OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman departed from his role as Oklo's chair. The departure of Altman, who was an early investor in the startup, put a damper on shares, as investors had considered his involvement to be a vote of confidence in the startup.
Oklo has been developing its small modular reactor as a way to deliver clean nuclear energy to help meet the soaring demand for energy coming from the boom in AI development. But the regulatory process for nuclear reactors is arduous and Oklo isn't recording any revenue yet.
Michael Thompson, who joined the board last year, was named independent lead director. He has served as chief executive of Reinvent Capital, a private investment fund, since 2017.
The new board members, appointed on April 10, are Mark Peters, David Christian, Derek Kan and David Park.
Peters is chief executive of Mitre, which manages research and development centers around the world.
Christian was formerly the chief innovation officer at Dominion Energy and led the company's nuclear business unit for a period of time. He is chair of the National Nuclear Accrediting Board.
Kan is vice president of business operations at Shopify and serves on the board of several companies.
Park is chief executive of Standard Lithium, a public lithium company.
Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2026 17:19 ET (21:19 GMT)
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