Janelle Sallenave doesn’t see financial services as a product; she sees them as an experience—one that should be accessible, intuitive, and centered around the customer. As Chief Experience Officer at Chime, she’s led the charge in translating member feedback into real solutions, from launching Live Chat support to using AI for faster service. One of her most powerful contributions is spearheading the launch of MyPay, a feature enabling members to access up to $500 between paychecks. For Sallenave, the idea is simple but impactful: give people access to their money when they actually need it. That kind of thinking helped reframe FOMO into “FTMO”—Forced To Miss Out—which she sees as the real problem financial institutions must solve. Chime’s approach, under her leadership, is not about disruption for its own sake; it’s about designing tools that allow members to participate fully in life, without financial timing getting in the way.
Raised by a mother who instilled the importance of financial literacy through weekly lessons, Sallenave was born with both curiosity and structure baked into her worldview. She earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in operations research from Stanford University. Her early fascination with processes evolved into a deep love for service systems—how experiences are built, scaled, and improved. At Chime, she leads cross-functional teams to ensure the member experience is not just seamless but actively empowering. Her career path includes leadership roles at Schwab and Uber, but it’s at Chime where she’s found the unique opportunity to unite her technical skills, strategic thinking, and passion for equity in one mission: to help everyday Americans unlock financial progress.
What sets Sallenave apart is her ability to see the invisible—the moments when people miss birthdays, cancel plans, or delay repairs simply because their paycheck hasn’t arrived yet. She treats these as design flaws, not consumer failures. For her, improving the member experience isn't a customer service mandate—it's a social responsibility. By listening deeply and building proactively, she’s helping Chime rewrite what it means to bank in America.