Getting to work as Tala’s new Chief People Officer!
Tala is thrilled to introduce Reini Chipman as Tala’s first Chief People Officer! Reini joins Tala from Simple, a fintech company devoted to transparent banking, and has spent the last twenty years in technology, building and empowering world-class teams. As she starts her new role, Reini shares what attracted her to Tala, her top priorities for the role, and why now is an amazing time to join Tala’s rapidly growing team.
After learning about Tala’s incredible mission to provide financial access, choice and control for the underserved around the world, I was immediately inspired. I’m now thrilled and honored to join this team in solving a meaningful global problem and building a sustainable organization where people truly love their work.
As I settle into my new role, I wanted to share what I’ll be doing and why it’s such a privilege to lead a team comprised of some of the most passionate, brilliant, tenacious, and innovative humans from Santa Monica to Tanzania, Mexico, India, Kenya, and the Philippines.
As Tala’s CPO, I’ll be partnering with Tala’s CEO, Shivani Siroya, and her leadership team to build a world-class organization set up to realize Tala’s vision and business goals. Tala currently provides instant credit scoring, lending, and other personalized financial services for a massive underserved population in emerging markets. To continue expanding these services, one of my team’s top priorities is to build out our scaling plan, global organizational structure, and hiring forecast. We’re also investing in furthering our organizational capacity and effectiveness, diversity and equity, and employee engagement.
Now is an incredible time to join Tala, especially its leadership team. Not only are we hiring, but we have so much juicy work to do. Tala is serving over two million customers in four countries, with over 350 employees. To get to this stage is extraordinary, and we’re just getting started. There are still close to three billion financially underserved people out there who don’t have access to credit. We now get to focus on growth and scaling our ability to service more customers than ever by continuing to bring our highest value — Radical Trust — to life every day.
For a little background on myself, I’ll be moving to LA with my partner and son from Portland, Oregon. I’m excited to enter LA’s thriving tech scene and for my six-year-old to enjoy the rich diversity of humans and experiences in LA. I’m also psyched that after 20+ years in the Pacific Northwest I can finally take vitamin D supplements off my self care regime.
I’ll be bringing a strong belief in people to my role. Tala has a world-class team, and I’ll be focused on empowering them to continue doing what they do best. And since Believe in People is one of Tala’s six founding principles, I know I’m in good company. More than that, we don’t need to over-complicate or be bureaucratic. We simply need to build fair systems that ensure a diverse and equitable environment. Tala’s exceptionally talented team will do the rest.
Perhaps most importantly, as the chief people person, it’s on me to model what it looks like to love what you do. At Tala we have audacious goals, and we know we can’t achieve them without each person feeling able to bring their full, authentic self to work every day. Tears are welcome. So are belly laughs. If you’re up for the challenge, I invite you to come join us. You won’t regret it.
— Reini Chipman, Chief People Officer, Tala
Want to build with Reini and #TeamTala? We’re hiring! We are growth hackers, engineers, data scientists, customer experience designers, marketers, and finance geeks all passionate about extending financial freedom to the billions of underserved people across the globe. We believe in people from every type of background — around the world, and within our company. We call this #RadicalTrust. Come join our global team at tala.co/careers
