Chief · Requirements

Chief membership requirements

Every criterion Chief publishes, with its source, the date it was verified and how confident we are in it, plus superseded figures, so you can see how the tests have moved.

A bright members' lounge with velvet chairs opening onto a terrace — Illustration

Read a requirement as the organization's published floor, not as a promise. A revenue test may have alternative versions for different business types, chapters can set stricter local tests, and invitation-only bodies publish criteria that describe members rather than admit them.

Current published criteria

5 rows

Criterion	Published requirement	Note	Provenance
Gender	A network for women leaders	Chief describes itself as a community of women leaders.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Minimum tenure in role	15+ years of leadership experience	Chief states experience and leadership tenure matter more than current title.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Role or title	C-suite route: CXO title at an organisation with 1,000+ employees, or a board seat at a public company	Senior Director titles at companies with 10,000+ employees are reviewed case by case.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Role or title	Senior leader route: CEO, CXO, VP or SVP, or founder at mid-market to enterprise-scale companies		Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗
Minimum company revenue	Builder route: US$2,000,000+ annual revenue or venture funding, or prior CXO/VP-plus experience	Applies to solopreneurs, independents, consultants, founders and fractional leaders.	Verified September 2026High confidenceSource ↗

How admission works

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.

Invitation required

Sponsor required

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.

Membership term

Annual, with the option at renewal to switch between the Core and Coaching offerings

Primary audience

Senior women executives with at least fifteen years of leadership experience, from C-suite officers to founders and independent operators.

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.

Reported threshold changes

2019-06Raised a US$22 million Series A led by Ken Chenault and Alexa von Tobel. ↗

Do you appear to meet them?

The qualification tool reads these rows against a profile you give in ranges and explains which criteria appear met, unclear or unmet. Check your profile

If not: alternatives to Chief (Women Presidents Organization, Luminary, Ellevate Network, Vistage).

Last verified: 6 September 2026 Report an error on this page

Sources

Chief, Chief. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 1
Chief Introduces New Memberships, Business Wire (Chief release), June 2024. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 1
Chief Membership, Chief. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 2
Chief Membership Criteria, Chief. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 2
Frequently Asked Questions About Chief, Chief. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 2
Apply to Join Chief, Chief. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 3
Chief members question $1B women network's fast growth, Fortune, March 2023. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 6
Chief, a network for women executives, hits unicorn status, PitchBook News, January 2022. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 6
Chief (women's network), Wikipedia. Accessed 6 September 2026.tier 8

Source tiers follow the published hierarchy: 1 official site · 2 official membership materials · 3 application documents · 4 annual reports · 5 government filings · 6 reliable business publications · 7 credible interviews · 8 other reputable secondary sources. Sources and data policy.