Chipo is Chief Operating Officer of Living Cities. She brings with her deep experience working in the private sector with large, Fortune 500 companies, small organizations including start-ups, and working with public officials to drive community level initiatives in Jersey City.

Prior to joining Living Cities, she grew up in media at Fox News and Universal Music Group, living through the disruption brought by technology of one of the world’s largest industries. She learned that the curious, the passionate and the people with ideas can change everything. She has worked with VC backed start-ups, helped founders find seed funding, and built scale at large organizations. She brings leadership and strategy along with an understanding of the great amount of risk taking and creativity behind building startups, scaling businesses and driving innovative change.

Chipo served on the Jersey City Office of Diversity & Inclusion (ODI), which was created to ensure equality of economic opportunity for all Jersey City (JC) residents. The JC ODI collaborates with academic institutions, community organizations, and business development centers to empower residents through access to workforce and business advancement opportunities. She joined the JC Zoning Board of Adjustments because development can build or break communities and having a seat at the table is critically important. When it seemed that the school system was not serving all the kids well, she worked as campaign treasurer to bring in a new Mayor and won a seat as a Ward rep to bring radical change to the School Board.

Chipo was 8 years old when she took her first flight, leaving Zimbabwe for the dream called America. She began her career at Arthur Andersen and is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a degree in Accounting and an emphasis on entrepreneurial studies. She was recently appointed to the Rutgers Big Data Advisory Board.