Comparison · 16 material differences
Chief vs Financial Executives International
This comparison was generated on request from the records. It carries no editorial verdict and is not indexed. The published comparisons are listed on the compare page.
Read down each column for one organization, across a row for the difference. A bronze mark at the left of a cell means the organizations differ on that row. A dash or “not published” means the organization does not disclose the fact; it is not a zero.
Verified September 2026
Networking organization
Verified September 2026 Chief
Senior women executives with at least fifteen years of leadership experience, from C-suite officers to founders and independent operators.
Professional association
Financial Executives International
Senior corporate finance executives - CFOs, chief accounting officers, controllers, treasurers, tax executives and audit committee members
What the records say
- Role or title: Chief: C-suite route: CXO title at an organisation with 1,000+ employees, or a board seat at a public company; Financial Executives International: Qualifying title: CFO, chief accounting officer, controller, treasurer, VP of finance, tax, risk management or planning and analysis, a director in those functions, or audit committee member.
- Minimum company revenue: Chief: Builder route: US$2,000,000+ annual revenue or venture funding, or prior CXO/VP-plus experience; Financial Executives International: Company must have at least $10 million in annual revenues (or meet an alternative size test).
- Minimum net worth: Chief: No published minimum net worth; Financial Executives International: Alternative company test: $2 million in net worth.
- Gender: Chief: A network for women leaders; Financial Executives International: No published gender.
- Annual dues: Chief: Not published on Chief's own membership, application or FAQ pages. Reported figures for 2026 cluster around US$5,900 a year for the Executive Education and Executive Advisory tiers, with Core tiers reported higher; earlier reporting cited US$5,400 for vice-president level and US$7,800 for C-suite, and Fortune reported US$5,800 in 2023. Chief confirms none of these figures publicly.; Financial Executives International: $399–499 a year.
Side by side
| Chief | Financial Executives International | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | ||
| Type | Networking organization | Professional association |
| Founded | 2019 (Launched in January 2019 in New York by Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan.) | 1931 (Founded as the Controllers Institute of America in 1931; renamed Financial Executives Institute in 1962 and Financial Executives International in 2000.) |
| Headquarters | New York, United States | Morristown, United States |
| Geographic footprint | United States, with four physical Clubhouses (New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.) and virtual programming | United States: 56 local chapters listed on FEI's own chapter index, from Hawaii to Long Island |
| Members | Not currently disclosed. Chief's site states members represent "10,000+" companies and 67 per cent of the Fortune 100, and that 44 per cent of members are in the C-suite, but publishes no current total. Wikipedia records 20,000 members as of October 2022. | 10,000as of September 2026 |
| Chapters | 4 | 56 |
| Primary audience | Senior women executives with at least fifteen years of leadership experience, from C-suite officers to founders and independent operators. | Senior corporate finance executives - CFOs, chief accounting officers, controllers, treasurers, tax executives and audit committee members |
| Typical member | Chief describes four member journeys: C-suite (CXO title at organisations with 1,000 or more employees, or a public-company board seat), senior leaders and executives (CEO, CXO, VP or SVP and founders at mid-market to enterprise firms), and builders and navigators (solopreneurs, consultants and fractional leaders with prior CXO or VP-plus experience, or a business with US$2 million or more in revenue or venture funding). Chief states more than 60 per cent of members are sponsored by their employers. | Members hold policy-making finance roles at companies across every major industry, from Fortune 500 businesses to mid-sized enterprises. Eligibility requires both a qualifying title and a company that clears a size test. |
| Qualification | ||
| Role or title | C-suite route: CXO title at an organisation with 1,000+ employees, or a board seat at a public companySenior Director titles at companies with 10,000+ employees are reviewed case by case.verified September 2026 · source ↗ | Qualifying title: CFO, chief accounting officer, controller, treasurer, VP of finance, tax, risk management or planning and analysis, a director in those functions, or audit committee memberFEI describes membership as "exclusive to senior-level financial executives".verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Minimum company revenue | Builder route: US$2,000,000+ annual revenue or venture funding, or prior CXO/VP-plus experienceApplies to solopreneurs, independents, consultants, founders and fractional leaders.verified September 2026 · source ↗ | Company must have at least $10 million in annual revenues (or meet an alternative size test)Alternative tests are $2 million in net worth or $6 million in capital (combined net worth and long-term debt).verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Minimum net worth | No published minimum net worth | Alternative company test: $2 million in net worthThis is a company balance-sheet test, not a personal net-worth test.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Gender | A network for women leadersChief describes itself as a community of women leaders.verified September 2026 · source ↗ | No published gender |
| Geographic restriction | No published geographic restriction | United States; members within 75 miles of a chapter must join that chapterverified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Invitation required | No | No |
| Sponsor required | No | No |
| Application process | Candidates apply online and Chief reviews the application against its published criteria. Qualified applicants are contacted for a 30-minute call, typically within a few business days, to discuss goals and Chief's offering. | Candidates complete an online membership application on the FEI site, which checks the qualifying title and company size test and presents chapter options and rates. Chapter membership is required for those within 75 miles of a chapter. No sponsor or nomination is needed. |
| Selectivity | Not publicly disclosed. Chief states it "previously had a waitlist, but we've since moved to an application-based model"; Fortune reported a waitlist of 60,000 in 2023. | No acceptance rate is published. Selectivity operates through the published title and company-size tests and the exclusion of service providers and start-ups. |
| Cost | ||
| Annual dues | Not published on Chief's own membership, application or FAQ pages. Reported figures for 2026 cluster around US$5,900 a year for the Executive Education and Executive Advisory tiers, with Core tiers reported higher; earlier reporting cited US$5,400 for vice-president level and US$7,800 for C-suite, and Fortune reported US$5,800 in 2023. Chief confirms none of these figures publicly.verified September 2026 | $399–499 a year"FEI membership dues are $399 for first year and $499 for subsequent years for all categories of membership" per the FEI Kansas City chapter. Other FEI chapter sites quote $309 a year for national dues, so the published figure varies by page.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Initiation fee | Chief does not publish pricing on its public pages; more than 60 per cent of memberships are employer-sponsored. | Not publicly disclosed; no joining fee separate from first-year dues is published.verified September 2026 |
| Local chapter dues | Chief does not publish pricing on its public pages; more than 60 per cent of memberships are employer-sponsored. | $75–468 a yearChapter dues are additional and vary by location: FEI Boston publishes $75 a year, FEI Northeast Ohio waives local dues in the first year, and FEI Sacramento lists $468 a year for executive, academic, in-transition and government/military categories, $399 for entrepreneur and $349 for retired. The Sacramento figures may be all-in rather than chapter-only.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Membership term | Annual, with the option at renewal to switch between the Core and Coaching offerings | Annual |
| Structure | ||
| Meeting frequency | Six guided Core peer-advisory sessions a year, or four executive coaching sessions, plus year-round events and summits | Local chapter meetings through the year plus national conferences, webinars and CPE-bearing courses |
| Peer forums | Core groups are curated by member journey (C-suite, Executive Leader, Builder, Navigator) and professional goals; a member testimonial on Chief's site describes a group of about ten. | No standing facilitated peer forum. FEI operates chapters, technical committees and special-interest programming rather than closed advisory groups |
| Confidentiality | Core sessions are described as confidential peer-advisory sessions; Chief does not publish its confidentiality terms. | No published forum confidentiality rule; FEI is a professional association with open programming and a member code of conduct |
| Time commitment | Not documented | Not documented |
| Organized as | Clubhouse premises, Cohort-based, Virtual, Event-focused | Chapter-based, Event-focused |
| Confidential peer forums | Yes | Partial |
| Local chapters | No | Yes |
| Virtual membership | Yes | Partial |
| Online community | Yes | Partial |
| Member directory | Yes | Yes |
| Events | Yes | Yes |
| Programming | ||
| Educational programming | Yes | Yes |
| Leadership development | Yes | Yes |
| Retreats | Partial | No |
| Travel | No | No |
| Family programming | No | No |
| Spouse and partner programming | No | No |
| Next-generation programming | No | No |
| Investment discussions | No | No |
| Investment opportunities | No | No |
| Philanthropic component | Not documented | Partial |
| Networking emphasis | High | High |
| Social emphasis | Medium | Low |
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Sources
Drawn from the sources listed on each page: Chief · Financial Executives International