Chief executive officer

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Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer

Corporate title

Publicly and privately held for-profit corporations confer corporate titles or business titles on company officials as a means of identifying their function in the organization....
(executive

Senior management

Senior management is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a corporation....
) or administrator in charge of total management

Management

Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leadership or directing, and Control an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal....
of a corporation

Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
, company

Company

Generally, a company is a form of business organization. The precise definition varies.In the United States, a company is a corporation—or, less commonly, an association, partnership, or union—that carries on an industrial enterprise." Generally, a company may be a "corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company, Inv...
, organization

Non-profit organization

A nonprofit organization is any organization that does not aim to make a profit, and which is not a public body....
, or agency

Government agency

A government agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency....
, reporting to the board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
. In internal communication and press releases, many companies capitalize the term and those of other high positions, even when they are not proper nouns

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
.

International use
In some European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
countries, there are two separate boards, one executive board

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board

Supervisory board

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International use

In some European Union

European Union

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board

Supervisory board

A supervisory board is a group of individuals chosen by the stockholders of a corporation to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and supervise the executive directors and CEO....
for control purposes (elected by the shareholders). In these countries, the CEO presides over the executive board and the chairman presides over the supervisory board, and these two roles will always be held by different people. This ensures a distinction between management

Management

Governance

Governance relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power , or verify performance . It consists either of a separate process or of a specific part of management or leadership processes....
by the supervisory board. This allows for clear lines of authority. The aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person. There is a strong parallel here with the structure of government, which tends to separate the political cabinet from the management civil service

Civil service

The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis of merit which is proven by the use of competitive examinations....
.

In other parts of the world, such as Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, 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

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
. In the UK, the chair (of the board) in public companies is more senior than the chief executive (who is usually known as the managing director

Managing director

Managing director is the term used for the chief executive of many limited company in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth of Nations and some other English speaking countries....
). Most public companies now split the roles of chair and chief executive.

In France, a CEO/MD is known as the "PDG" ; in Sweden, the CEO/MD is known as "VD" ; in Australia, the CEO can be known as the "MD" (managing director); in India, it is either Managing Director or CEO though CEOs are very common especially with the startup boom; in Spain, the usual name is "director general"; while in Italy, the position is called "AD" . In Denmark and Norway the CEO is known as the "administrerende direktør", abbr. adm.dir.

In the US, and in business, the executive officers are 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.

In the airline industry, the Executive Officer, more commonly known as the First Officer, is the second in command of the aircraft. In a fixed wing aircraft the First Officer sits in the right-hand seat but in a rotary wing aircraft they sit on the left.

Structure

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

Common associates includes a chief financial officer

Chief financial officer

The chief financial officer of a Types of companies or public agency is the corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the Finance risks of the business or agency....
(CFO), chief operating officer

Chief operating officer

A chief operating officer or chief operations officer is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation and for operations management ....
(COO), chief technical officer

Chief technical officer

A chief technical officer or chief technology officer is an executive position whose holder is focused on scientific and technical issues within an organization....
(CTO), chief marketing officer

Chief marketing officer

Chief Marketing Officer is a corporate title referring to an Senior management responsible for various marketing in an organization. Most often the position reports to the chief executive officer....
(CMO), chief information officer

Chief information officer

The chief information officer is a job title for the board level head of information technology within an organization. The CIO typically reports to the chief operations officer and in small or IT-centered organizations to the chief executive officer....
(CIO), chief creative officer (CCO), and a director, or Vice-President of human resources

Human resources

Human resources is a term with which organizations describe the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with performance, Employee Relations and Resource planning....
.

Chief executive officer

International use

Structure

See also