How to Find a CHRO's Email Address (2026)

TL;DR

• Search by title, job level and job function, then reveal the email only for the people you will actually write to. Do not guess patterns.
• It takes about 15 minutes and about 15 LeadOcean records: 10 search rows and 5 reveals. The count in Step 1 is free.
• Read email_status before you send. Send to verified. Treat catch_all as a risk you choose, and skip the rest.

Prerequisites

• A LeadOcean account. The free plan gives you 1,000 records, one-off, with no card: start free.
• An API key in your shell: export LEADOCEAN_API_KEY=... (the dashboard lists your keys).
• curl and jq. Every request goes to https://api.leadocean.io with the x-api-key header.

Step 1: Count the mailable CHROs

Count first. It is free and tells you whether the filter is worth running. Send count=true as a query parameter with limit 1 in the body.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?count=true" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": ["Chief Human Resources Officer", "CHRO"],
    "jobLevel": ["C-Team"],
    "jobFunction": ["Human Resources"],
    "salesRegion": ["NORAM"],
    "limit": 1
  }' | jq '.meta | {total, totalIsExact, credits}'

Change salesRegion to EMEA, APAC or LATAM to size each region. We ran the same filters through the free MCP count_leads tool on 21 October 2026. These are mailable counts: emailStatus verified, catch_all_valid or catch_all, the default.

The four regions add to 10,956. The other 1,218 match the title filters but fall outside all four regions. The titles above do not include "Chief People Officer". Add it to title if you want it. Many companies use that title for the same seat, so count both before you decide.

Step 2: Pull a first page of CHROs

Run the search without count. Each person returned costs one record, so keep limit small while you test. Add emailStatus to keep only addresses worth sending to.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": ["Chief Human Resources Officer", "CHRO"],
    "jobLevel": ["C-Team"],
    "jobFunction": ["Human Resources"],
    "country": ["US"],
    "emailStatus": ["verified"],
    "limit": 10
  }' > chros.json

jq '.meta | {count, credits, nextCursor}' chros.json

Search rows are thin. They carry has_email and email_status but no address. Use meta.nextCursor to fetch the next page, and pass it back unchanged.

Step 3: Reveal the email for the CHROs you want

Pick the rows worth contacting and enrich each one by person_id. Send reveal_email=true, or the call returns no address. It costs one record per person. The reveal itself adds nothing.

PERSON_ID=$(jq -r '.data[0].meta.source_ids.person_id' chros.json)

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"person_id\": \"$PERSON_ID\", \"reveal_email\": true}" > reveal.json

jq '.data.contact_data.contact_emails' reveal.json

There is no name plus domain lookup. If you start from a company list, search by domain first, then enrich by person_id.

Step 4: Verify before you send

Check the status on every address. This reads the file from Step 3, so it spends nothing. Pattern guessing (first.last@, flast@) gives you an address that may not exist. A found address with a status is better than a guess.

jq -r '.data.contact_data.contact_emails[]
  | select(.type == "work")
  | [.email, .status, .verified_batch_date] | @tsv' reveal.json

Use this rule:

• verified: send.
• catch_all: the domain accepts everything, so a bounce is possible. Send in a small batch and watch it.
• risky, unknown, untested, role, invalid: do not send.

verified_batch_date is the date of the verification run. A null means LeadOcean did not run the check itself. There is no refund for bounced emails, so this step is where you save your sender reputation.

Step 5: Fall back to a pattern only when the lookup is empty

Some CHROs are not in the data, or have no checked address. Then build candidates from the name and the company domain, and verify each one before you send.

first="jane"; last="doe"; domain="acme.com"
printf '%s\n' "$first.$last@$domain" "${first:0:1}$last@$domain" "$first@$domain" "$first${last:0:1}@$domain"

Pick the shape you can confirm from another address you already hold at the same domain. A guess at a catch-all domain always looks valid, so it proves nothing. Skip shared inboxes such as hr@ or people@: they carry the role status and reach a team, not the CHRO.

HR leaders get heavy vendor mail. Keep the first email short, name one people-team problem, and ask one question.

Step 6: Export the whole list

When the count looks right, export instead of paging. Bulk CSV export is not on Free: it is included on Solo ($97 a month) and Agency ($497 a month). One request takes up to 50,000 rows, with 500,000 a day. Every row costs one record, so set limit to what you will use.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "chro-noram-verified",
    "filters": {
      "title": ["Chief Human Resources Officer", "CHRO"],
      "jobLevel": ["C-Team"],
      "jobFunction": ["Human Resources"],
      "salesRegion": ["NORAM"],
      "emailStatus": ["verified"]
    },
    "limit": 500,
    "preset": "full",
    "caps": {"emails": 1}
  }'

Poll GET /v1/exports/{id} until status is done, then download the CSV. The CSV headers are email_1_address and email_1_status. You can also build the same export in the app (app.leadocean.io, Exports page), which shows the record price before you start.

What you get

The free count for the NORAM filter, from the MCP count_leads tool on 21 October 2026:

{
  "total": 8099,
  "totalIsExact": true,
  "credits": 0,
  "defaults": "Counted only addresses worth sending to (emailStatus: verified or catch_all_valid or catch_all)"
}

A search row, as a response shape from the API reference. Values are placeholders and profile_data is abbreviated:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "profile_data": {},
      "contact_data": {
        "has_email": true,
        "has_phone": false,
        "email_status": "verified",
        "email_type": "work"
      },
      "meta": { "source_ids": { "person_id": "1234567" } }
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "count": 1, "credits": 1, "nextCursor": "..." }
}

After the reveal, contact_data.contact_emails holds objects with email, type, status and verified_batch_date, for example jane.doe@acme.com, work, verified.

Troubleshooting

FAQ