Communicator spotlight: Chime's chief corporate affairs officer Jennifer Kuperman
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As chief corporate affairs officer of Chime, Jennifer Kuperman is responsible for shaping the fintech company's reputation and sharing its story.
Why it matters: She established Chime's corporate affairs function by bringing together the external and internal communications, public affairs, government affairs and community impact functions.
🗣What she's saying: "The corporate affairs team is basically like a little spinal cord that works cross functionally to help us kind of tell our story to all the stakeholders that matter to our success," she told Axios.
📍How she got here: Kuperman got her start in management consulting before joining Visa.
- After holding various roles during her decade-long stint, she was recruited by Alibaba to serve as head of international corporate affairs before joining Chime in 2022.
💼 Zoom in: Kuperman is an active board member of Post Holdings, Bellring Brands and Kyriba. She also sits on the board of CoachArt, a nonprofit organization founded to match kids affected by serious illness with volunteers who can teach them arts or athletics skills.
- "What I found in my experience on public and private boards is that reputation management, government affairs and social impact are things that every company — irrespective of industry, size and public or private status — all face and to be able to bring that expertise to bear is great for the company," she says.
🗞Trend watch: She points to "newsjacking" to grab the attention of key audiences.
- "We have this amazing data and analytics team looking at consumer trends so we can understand the impact of our products and who's spending on what," say Kuperman.
- "As a communications function, we'd like to parlay all this data into a story that ties into the cultural news story of the moment and help us drive the conversation toward Chime and our products."
🍽 Content plate: She recently read "Crying in H Mart" by Michelle Zauner and binged the last season of "The Crown" and "Ted Lasso."
🧠 Best advice comes from Visa CEO Joseph Saunders: Drive with influence.
- "It's not how big your budget is or how many team members you have — you need to build and leverage the relationships across the organization. That's how you affect change."
