Real People: An interview with Kara Fitzpatrick, Sr. Director and Chief of Staff, Capital One

I’ve loved conducting these Real People interviews and sharing a bit more about our team members with the world. So it got me thinking: why not do the same thing with some of the incredible colleagues and partners who we’ve gotten to work with over our 25+ years in business? To kick things off, we’re starting with Kara Fitzpatrick. While she currently serves as Senior Director and Chief of Staff at Capital One, you’ll quickly learn that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Kara.

For our readers, how would you describe your job in one sentence? What’s your personal elevator pitch?

I’m just a kid from Jersey who was supposed to be a high school English teacher and soccer coach. Instead, I created a career dedicated to creating large-scale impact—with heart–across entertainment, professional sports, tech, and government.

What did you do before your current role, and how did that set you up for success now?

Currently, I’m a chief of staff, a role I’ve been doing for about 10 years. I took a year-long sabbatical last year, road tripping to 16 national parks. On LinkedIn it says for that year that I was officially a “National Parks Hype Woman” – something I proudly still am.

I don’t know that there’s any one thing that set me up for success in my current role. I look at the industries I’ve been fortunate to work in across sports and entertainment and nonprofits and government and the private sector, and I think there are bits and pieces of every one of those that have contributed to the way I’m able to show up in my job today.

My undergrad degree was in theater and English–I double majored–and from that perspective, working behind the scenes in theater really taught me so many leadership life lessons. How to align a team to a common goal, how to rally people around a vision and get ready for opening night, how to fail gracefully and make mistakes. In theater, you learn to fail gracefully: physically, metaphorically, and emotionally. And the reason you succeed in theater is because you’re working off the energy of the person across from you. So, while your job is to perform, your real job onstage is to give energy to the other person you’re performing with, and that’s the kind of selfless act that has influenced my leadership style to this day.

What is a defining moment in your career so far? Why?

I had the great honor of working for Vice President Biden on the Cancer Moonshot Initiative in President Obama’s White House. And it was a turning point in my life because I realized that–no matter the industry, no matter the role, no matter the organization–what gives me the most energy is being in a position where I can do the most good for the most people. And when you have the bully pulpit of the White House, and nobody’s going to say no when you call them to ask if they want to help beat cancer, you realize the power that comes with that–it truly is, to quote Spider-Man, “a great responsibility.” Learning to leverage the privilege and responsibility you have in any role to help the people who need it most is something I will never forget.

What do you love about your job?

As chief of staff, I have to be up to speed on the business and its needs, but also in tune with the people. I often say I am squarely at the intersection of customers, the business, and employees. That’s my favorite place to be because I get to ensure we’re connecting with customers to drive business impact while also showing up for each other, and I take that very seriously. Cultivating and fostering a culture where people feel safe, respected, and valued is one of my favorite parts of my job.

What would you say is your superpower?

Workwise, I’ve been told my superpower is seeing around corners and creating end-to-end experiences. While I enjoy doing online UX, where I shine and where I get the most energy is creating real-life experiences. Back in my Intuit days, I was fortunate to lead the first team that created QuickBooks Connect, which is now Intuit Connect. I get so much energy from building things like that. If I want to get really nerdy, one of my favorite things to do is to whiteboard what the flow of the event is going to be for the day–the speaker order, the breaks, the experiential parts. It starts from post-it notes and whiteboards and turns into what’s called a rundown.

There’s just something really gratifying about building something that people feel. That’s probably one of the greatest joys of my life, attending something that I had the privilege of leading and co-creating, and seeing it literally come to life in front of my eyes.

What is one industry trend that you have your eye on heading into 2026?

Being intentional about asking the hard questions. Pointing things out and saying, “Is this the right thing to do? We could be doing this, but should we?” I think a lot of times, we get in situations where we do things because that’s the way they’ve always been done. And I think we all have an opportunity in a lot of spaces at work and in our lives to say, “Yeah, but should we be doing this?” I’m seeing, personally and professionally, a lot more people asking more critical questions and having more critical discourse, and I think this is the moment for that.

What is one thing your colleagues don’t know about you?
Oh, this is always a fun one because where do I start? People don’t know that I threw Julia Roberts’ 28th birthday party at Great Adventure when I was working at Six Flags, because it was also the wrap party for the movie Stepmom that she was in.

They probably also don’t know that the reason I quit being a photojournalist is because I was getting paid to do the job, and that made it not fun anymore.

What is one thing that I should have asked you but didn’t?

“What’s next?”

The number one thing on my to-do list is to plan my next trip to a national park. That’s my forever to-do. The parks are so beautiful–they’re America’s best idea, as Wallace Stegner said.