Zach Stubenvoll
-
company
OpenAI
-
position
Vice President of Creative
-
website
-
when
Wednesday 7 October 14:55
15:40
Zach Stubenvoll is the Vice President of Creative at OpenAI, where he leads global creative and design. He joined the company in 2025 to build its creative organization and has since led work across ChatGPT, Codex, and OpenAI’s broader portfolio.
His team created OpenAI’s first major brand campaign for ChatGPT, recognized by Ad Age as Campaign of the Year. The team also shapes the expression of OpenAI’s research culture, product launches, partnerships, and experimental work exploring AI as a creative medium.
Before OpenAI, Zach co-founded Reflective Works, a startup at the intersection of AI, self-discovery, and creative agency.
From 2014 to 2024, he led Meta’s global brand design practice, overseeing the identity and expression of its portfolio of apps and hardware. In 2021, he led the company’s rebrand from Facebook to Meta.
Earlier in his career, Zach worked on President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and contributed to think tanks and startups exploring our evolving relationship with technology.
Throughout his career, he has built creative organizations grounded in kindness, curiosity, and a deep commitment to craft. He is a named inventor on several patents and has spoken at events and museum shows around the world. He lives a quiet life in Oakland, California.
2026 Speakersspeaking at
For ChatGPT’s first large-scale brand campaign, OpenAI, Isle of Any and SMUGGLER director Miles Jay took an unexpectedly human approach. Shot on 35mm (not AI!) using custom lenses and built around precisely choreographed single takes, the series of tiny films depended on the smallest details working together: casting, micro-performances, camera movement, music and timing.
At a moment when AI can generate almost anything, this is a case study about a very different creative challenge: using every tool available to make technology feel less technological — and more human.