Comparison · 14 material differences
Chief vs theBoardlist
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
theBoardlist
Women executives seeking private and public company board seats, and the chief executives, investors and boards searching for candidates
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; theBoardlist: No published role or title.
- Minimum company revenue: Chief: Builder route: US$2,000,000+ annual revenue or venture funding, or prior CXO/VP-plus experience; theBoardlist: No published minimum company revenue.
- Gender: Chief: A network for women leaders; theBoardlist: The candidate pool was for women; theBoardlist described itself as connecting "highly qualified women across industries with private and public board opportunities".
- 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.; theBoardlist: Not publicly disclosed.
Side by side
| Chief | theBoardlist | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | ||
| Type | Networking organization | Networking organization |
| Founded | 2019 (Launched in January 2019 in New York by Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan.) | 2015 (Launched on 15 July 2015 as the first initiative of the #ChoosePossibility Project, founded by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, per Wikipedia. theBoardlist's own site carried a "© 2018 theBoardlist" notice.) |
| Headquarters | New York, United States | United States |
| Geographic footprint | United States, with four physical Clubhouses (New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.) and virtual programming | An online marketplace, originally focused on the United States technology industry and later broadened across industries |
| 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. | 5,000as of June 2020 |
| Chapters | 4 | No chapters; theBoardlist was a single online platform |
| Primary audience | Senior women executives with at least fifteen years of leadership experience, from C-suite officers to founders and independent operators. | Women executives seeking private and public company board seats, and the chief executives, investors and boards searching for candidates |
| 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. | Senior women executives nominated by chief executives, investors and other business leaders for board service. Candidates did not self-nominate: entry to the talent pool came through peer endorsement by a recommender in theBoardlist's community. |
| 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 ↗ | No published role or title |
| 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 ↗ | The candidate pool was for women; theBoardlist described itself as connecting "highly qualified women across industries with private and public board opportunities"Recommenders and searching companies were not restricted by genderverified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Invitation required | No | Yes |
| Sponsor required | No | Yes |
| 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. | Women entered the candidate pool by being nominated by a recommender from theBoardlist's community of chief executives, investors and senior leaders. Nominated candidates were then encouraged to complete a profile and connect their LinkedIn account so that searching companies could find them. |
| 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 a rate. theBoardlist reported that more than 1,400 executives had nominated more than 2,100 women by November 2017 and that it had influenced more than 100 board placements. |
| 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 |
| 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 | No published meeting programme; theBoardlist listed events but its core function was the online marketplace |
| 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 forums |
| Confidentiality | Core sessions are described as confidential peer-advisory sessions; Chief does not publish its confidentiality terms. | Not publicly disclosed |
| Time commitment | Not documented | Not documented |
| Organized as | Clubhouse premises, Cohort-based, Virtual, Event-focused | Virtual |
| Confidential peer forums | Yes | No |
| Local chapters | No | No |
| Virtual membership | Yes | Yes |
| Online community | Yes | Partial |
| Member directory | Yes | Yes |
| Events | Yes | Partial |
| Programming | ||
| Educational programming | Yes | Partial |
| Leadership development | Yes | Partial |
| 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 | No |
| Networking emphasis | High | Medium |
| Social emphasis | Medium | Low |
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Sources
Drawn from the sources listed on each page: Chief · theBoardlist