Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer (CEO, American English), managing director (MD, British English), or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer (executive) or administrator in charge of total management of an organization. An individual appointed as CEO of a corporation, company, organization, or agency reports to the board of directors.

Many CEOs have the title "president and CEO". This is a popular combination especially if someone else is a non-executive chairman of the board. In addition, it can mean the opposite (especially in the United States), in other words that the title holders are also inside directors on the board of directors if not the chairperson (often called "president"), or it can mean that they are also the chief operating officer. Compared to the CEO, the president is often considered to be more focused upon daily operations, who is supposed to be the visionary, so the title "president and CEO" is often used to emphasise that the title holder performs both these roles.

Responsibilities

*For corporations, the chief executive officer primarily coordinates external initiatives at a high level. As there are many other c-level executives (e.g. marketing, information, technical, financial etc.), seldom do corporate CEOs have low-level functions.

*For emerging entrepreneurs, their acting position as a CEO is much different than that on the corporate level. As often other c-level executives are not incorporated in small operations, it is the duty of the CEO (and sometimes founder) to assume those positions.

*Mid-sized companies borrow from corporate and entrepreneurial CEO responsibilities. There will not be all c-level positions available so the CEO must compensate for gaps either through delegating or assuming additional responsibility.

In many states, when an organization incorporates it is necessary to specify individuals in the role of president, treasurer, and secretary with the proviso that the person nominated as president cannot also hold the position of treasurer. But often a person can be specified as secretary/treasurer.

In many non-profits, there is a gross confusion between the chair of the board (sometimes referred to as the president of the board), the secretary of the board (also confused with the secretary of the corporation), and then a board often creates the position of treasurer.

Boards should not have presidents or treasurers, but boards and corporations both need secretaries.

International use

In other parts of the world, such as Asia, it is possible to have two or three CEOs in charge of one corporation. In the UK, many charities and government agencies are headed by a chief executive who is answerable to a board of trustees or board of directors. In the UK, similar to a sizable percentage of public companies in the US, the chair(person) (of the board) in public companies is more senior than the chief executive (who is usually known as the managing director). Most public companies now split the roles of chair and chief executive.

The following presents an alphabetical list of some international common terms for the CEO position:

* Australia: general manager (GM) (or also managing director (MD), but only when the executive officeholder is also a member of the board of directors) (administrating director) (Adm.Dir.) (general manager) (TJ) (PDG) (POF) (business leader) or also (general director) (Director General) (Ügyv. Ig.)

In the United States, and in business, the executive officers are usually the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer (CEO) being the best-known type. The definition varies; for instance, the California Corporate Disclosure Act defines "Executive Officers" as the five most highly-compensated officers not also sitting on the board of directors. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, an executive officer is any member, manager, or officer.

Structure

Typically, a CEO has several subordinate executives, each of whom has specific functional responsibilities.

Common associates include a chief business development officer (CBDO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), chief marketing officer (CMO), chief information officer (CIO), chief communications officer (CCO), chief legal officer (CLO), chief technical officer (CTO), chief creative officer (CCO), chief compliance officer (CCO), chief audit executive (CAE), chief diversity officer (CDO), or chief human resources officer (CHRO).

In hospitals and healthcare organizations, this also often includes a chief medical officer (CMO), a chief nursing officer (CNO), and a chief medical informatics officer (CMIO).

In the United Kingdom they normally use director instead of chief officers as the common associates. These include an audit executive (AE), business development director (BDD), chief executive (CE), compliance director (CD), creative director (CD), director of communications (DC), diversity director (DD), financial director (FD), human resources director (HRD), information technology director (ITD), legal affairs director (LAD), managing director (MD), marketing director (MD), operations director (OD) and technical director (TD).

See also

References

External links

* 2008–2010 Study: CEOs Who Fired Most Workers Earned Highest Pay – video report by Democracy Now!

Category:Business and financial operations occupations Category:Corporate governance Category:Management occupations