Chief Launches its Private Network of Powerful Women
Chief, a private network of exceptional women, launches to connect and support female leaders across industries, cross-pollinating power to drive exponential change. Created to help women climb into — and stay in — seats of power, Chief membership offers services for senior leaders to support their obstacles and leverage their influence to elevate the next generation of women. Co-founded by Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan, former executives from Amazon and Casper respectively, Chief is specifically designed to meet the unique challenges of being a woman in power today.
Annual membership includes access to Chief’s signature service, Core Groups — monthly meetings with similarly experienced career contemporaries, created to forge support and connections among senior leaders. Sessions are led by a professional facilitator with over a decade of professional experience in executive coaching and leadership development. Chief also hosts its Salon Series, select powerhouse experiences and workshops, including celebrity fireside conversations, skill-sharpening workshops on media training and board seats, and intimate dinners with captains of industry. Members also receive access to Chief’s elegantly-appointed Tribeca clubhouse and its pseudonymous chat app for honest and confidential discussion.
Chief launches with a waitlist of thousands and 200 outstanding Founding Members — including C-Suite executives from Fortune 500 companies, founders of popular startup brands, publishers of major newspapers, heads of major advertising agencies, and executives across industries including tech, retail, enterprise, the arts, finance, media and nonprofits. The vast majority of members receive company sponsorship typically through learning and development budgets. Chief also offers grants to those who do not have access to company budgets to ensure a mix of cognitive diversity and industry representation. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and are open to all applicants with senior credentials who share the same mission of promoting gender equity.
“As a woman reaches the top of her career, her decisions carry more weight and are more impactful within organizations, yet often her circle of trusted peers shrinks,” said Carolyn Childers, co-founder and CEO of Chief. “By linking women who collectively hold court across boardrooms, Chief members are able to keep their seats while ushering in the next generation of female leaders.”
“There has never been more visibility on women in leadership, but progress has stalled and the numbers have stagnated. Our goal is to get more women in the C-suite and keep them there — and accelerate positive change as quickly as possible,” said Lindsay Kaplan, co-founder and CXO of Chief.
At the current rate of change, it will take over 200 years until the US reaches gender pay parity. Women hold 4.9 percent of CEO roles in the US, UK and Europe, and in 2018 the number of female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies fell from 32 to 24. Using the influence and drive of its members, Chief is building a support system of influential players to build lines of succession into the C-suite and make positive, lasting change.