Comparison · 14 material differences
Chief vs Seattle Executives Association
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.
Networking organization
Seattle Executives Association
Owners, principals and decision makers of established Greater Seattle businesses, one per business category
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; Seattle Executives Association: The applicant must be a business owner, principal or decision maker for the company.
- Minimum company revenue: Chief: Builder route: US$2,000,000+ annual revenue or venture funding, or prior CXO/VP-plus experience; Seattle Executives Association: No published minimum company revenue.
- Gender: Chief: A network for women leaders; Seattle Executives Association: No published gender.
- Geographic restriction: Chief: No published geographic restriction; Seattle Executives Association: Greater Seattle area.
- 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.; Seattle Executives Association: Not publicly disclosed. The association does not publish dues; prospective members are told to call the office..
Side by side
| Chief | Seattle Executives Association | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | ||
| Type | Networking organization | Networking organization |
| Founded | 2019 (Launched in January 2019 in New York by Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan.) | 1917 (Founded in 1917 by a group of Seattle businessmen who shared information about ships arriving in port and referred clients to one another, per the association's own history.) |
| Headquarters | New York, United States | Seattle, United States |
| Geographic footprint | United States, with four physical Clubhouses (New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.) and virtual programming | Greater Seattle area; weekly luncheons at the Washington Athletic Club and at member locations |
| 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. | 130as of September 2026 |
| Chapters | 4 | A single-city association with no chapters. It is a member of the International Executives Association (IEA), a network of comparable city associations, and is listed as the Seattle chapter in IEA directories. |
| Primary audience | Senior women executives with at least fifteen years of leadership experience, from C-suite officers to founders and independent operators. | Owners, principals and decision makers of established Greater Seattle businesses, one per business category |
| 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 are business owners, principals or company decision makers whose firms have traded for at least two years. The membership is deliberately spread across business categories rather than concentrated in one sector; open categories advertised in 2026 included appliance sales and service, residential cleaning, collision repair, distillery, fine dining, limousine service, office equipment and supplies, record storage and shredding, title and escrow, television station, replacement windows and winery. |
| 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 ↗ | The applicant must be a business owner, principal or decision maker for the companyverified 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 ↗ | No published minimum company revenue |
| 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 | Greater Seattle areaverified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Invitation required | No | Sometimes |
| Sponsor required | No | Not documented |
| 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. | A prospective member calls the association office to find out whether an opening exists in their business category. If there is one, they are invited to attend a luncheon meeting and decide whether the group fits. Admission depends on the classification being open and on meeting the owner or decision-maker test and the two-year trading requirement. |
| 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. | Not publicly disclosed as an acceptance rate. In practice the binding constraint is category exclusivity: if a competitor already holds the classification, the applicant cannot join regardless of merit. |
| 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 | Not publicly disclosed. The association does not publish dues; prospective members are told to call the office.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 disclosedverified September 2026 |
| Membership term | Annual, with the option at renewal to switch between the Core and Coaching offerings | Not documented |
| Structure | ||
| Meeting frequency | Six guided Core peer-advisory sessions a year, or four executive coaching sessions, plus year-round events and summits | Weekly luncheon meetings on Wednesdays, with a 50 percent minimum attendance requirement |
| 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. | Weekly full-group luncheon plus one-to-one member meetings; no confidential facilitated peer forum is published |
| Confidentiality | Core sessions are described as confidential peer-advisory sessions; Chief does not publish its confidentiality terms. | Not publicly disclosed |
| Time commitment | Not documented | At least half of the weekly Wednesday luncheons, per the association's published attendance requirement |
| Organized as | Clubhouse premises, Cohort-based, Virtual, Event-focused | Event-focused |
| Confidential peer forums | Yes | No |
| Local chapters | No | No |
| Virtual membership | Yes | No |
| Online community | Yes | Partial |
| Member directory | Yes | Yes |
| Events | Yes | Yes |
| Programming | ||
| Educational programming | Yes | Partial |
| Leadership development | Yes | No |
| Retreats | Partial | No |
| Travel | No | No |
| Family programming | No | No |
| Spouse and partner programming | No | Not documented |
| Next-generation programming | No | No |
| Investment discussions | No | No |
| Investment opportunities | No | No |
| Philanthropic component | Not documented | No |
| Networking emphasis | High | High |
| Social emphasis | Medium | Medium |
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Last verified: not yet reviewed
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Sources
Drawn from the sources listed on each page: Chief · Seattle Executives Association