Power Moves: Charlene Brown, ERG Program Manager

Charlene Brown, Employee Resource Group Program Manager, smiles while working at Peloton's headquarters

“One of the things that’s interesting about Peloton is that it’s OK to share with your manager that your interests have changed or that you want to do more,” says Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program manager Charlene Brown. “I feel like a lot of companies say they create opportunities for team members to get involved and roll up their sleeves, but we really mean it. We’re truly creating the best place to work for all employees, no matter their background, education, race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.”

Charlene joined Peloton in 2015. At the time, the company was a very different company —small enough that you could sit in one place and see the entire corporate team in one room—and Charlene was part of the Member Support team, which she describes as being “small and mighty at the time”

Back then, the support team was still refining their processes and how to scale their procedures. “A lot of what we did in the early days was just trying to figure out how to be supportive of our members.” 

Nevertheless, Charlene excelled. After just a couple of months on the job, she was asked to take on a leadership role and help grow the team, and the effects of her leadership can still be seen today. “It was really rewarding to see how the team grew and how we expanded our business,” she says. “When I first started in Member Support, you had to learn a little bit of everything—you answered membership questions, you answered hardware and software questions, you answered logistical questions—you were kind of a jack-of-all-trades. Now we have a well-oiled support team ready to handle questions from Members around the world.”

Charlene writes in her notebook at Peloton's New York headquarters.

Operating with a bias for action and creating a new path

While working in Member Support, Charlene identified a problem: Her team fielded a lot of help requests from businesses and hotels, but there was no specific support or account management team for their corporate customers. She approached her manager with the problem and got the green light to build a commercial support team from scratch. 

At the time, there wasn’t a process for internal movement like there is today, so Charlene was carving her own path. In fact, every move she’s made within Peloton is one that she has chosen. Every time she imagined a new role for herself, she pursued it and achieved it. 

“There are a lot of opportunities here,” she says. “If you’re interested in getting started on a different career path, there are team members here to help you. People are so open and willing to help you get to that next step in your career. Peloton is a really supportive environment and allows team members to be themselves.”

Even while she was building the Commercial Support team, Charlene saw that there was even more room to grow. Peloton was starting to think seriously about DEI and building out its employee resource groups (ERGs). During this time, Charlene became a co-founder and co-lead for Black @  Peloton and found her passion in DEI work.

Using passion to create the best place to work

“A couple of months before a role became available on the DEI team, I told my boss that I felt that there was something else I should be doing here at Peloton—something that was tied to my personal passion and purpose. I wanted to help create a place where all team members feel that they can be themselves, that they belong, that they have a seat at the table, and where diverse perspectives are acknowledged and celebrated. And even though I was doing a stellar job in the commercial space, my boss was supportive.”

Since 2021, Charlene has been Peloton’s  ERG program manager on the DEI team. In this role, she helps ERG leads identify opportunities for growth, develops plans for cultural and heritage month celebrations, and looks at ways for ERGs to get involved with different teams at Peloton like Talent Acquisition and Social Impact.

“Our team culture is very open. You can ask questions,” Charlene says. “We have team members with all kinds of different backgrounds. For example, not everyone started their career in the DEI space on my team, but we’re all here to create the best place to work for all team members.”

Charlene says that for now, her plan is to keep growing and honing her skills in DEI. “Of course, there’s a lot of work to be done even outside of ERGs. I love the fact that I’ve been able to help the talent management team and internal mobility team, but I want to keep getting more exposure to different aspects of DEI and broaden my relationship to include teams I haven’t worked with yet.”

Her advice to anyone who wants to move up in their career is to ask questions: “Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone who you may have never worked with before. If there’s something that you want to do, or more information that you want to gather, be open and don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions—even to someone you might not know personally. That will help you get to where you want to be, and you’ll be surprised by how open people are to sharing their learnings and experiences. Always stay curious.”