Chief, a Private Club for Executives, Opens in LA

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Chief, a private network for vice president and rising and C-level executives, has opened a Los Angeles outpost.
 
Lindsay Kaplan and Carolyn Childers, who founded the company in New York in 2019, are expanding the private club concept and have a worldwide waitlist.

 
The L.A. location’s clubhouse at 712-714 La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood opened in April, but L.A. members had early online access to Chief starting in April 2020. Full membership and services launched in August.

 
“We were going through a huge pandemic, and Chief, while a lot of our services were originally in person, made the pivot to a virtual community,” Childers said.


The new clubhouse takes up two buildings and comes complete with six meeting rooms, lounges, a cocktail bar, a mother’s wellness room, phone booths and a center courtyard.


“Chief, unlike a lot of spaces out there, we are not a coworking space,” Kaplan said. “We were looking for something that gave us hotel lobby vibes without hotel rooms. We wanted to develop a space where our members could meet one another and have cocktails and really congregate and also have meetings.”


Approximately 750 of Chief’s 5,000 members are in L.A.


To be a part of Chief, members must hold an executive role in an organization and have accumulated 15 years or more of professional experience.


“These are people that are leaders,” Kaplan said.


Vice president-level members pay $5,900 a year in dues, while C-level executives pay $7,900 a year.


That may seem steep, but Childers said most members are sponsored by their employer.


“The majority of what we offer is really about being able to grow and extend within the community as leaders,” she said, adding that Chief is viewed by many companies as a way for their employees to learn new skills and make connections.


Childers and Kaplan founded Chief after rising through the ranks in their own careers. Childers said they found they were spending a lot of time mentoring others but “didn’t really have a space for us to continue to grow as leaders.”


“They say that it’s lonely at the top, but it gets lonely for women a lot earlier, so we were inspired to launch Chief, a community focused on senior executive women,” Childers said.


Although Chief is designed specifically for women, men are welcome to join.
The company now has flagship locations in New York, Chicago and L.A., but Kaplan said most of the growth up until now has been in the digital sphere.


“We view (the clubhouses) very much as an amenity as part of your membership, but the vast majority of what you get for your membership happens in a digital format,” Childers said.


Now that the economy is opening back up, however, Chief wanted to open a few flagship locations where members can gather. The goal is to open more clubhouses in areas where a lot of Chief’s members either live or visit.

 
“We’re excited to continue our expansion. We have a network that is growing by word of mouth, and we are excited for women who read about Chief and see themselves as a leader in their organization to apply,” Kaplan said.

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