Chief executive officer

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"Chief Executive" redirects here. For other uses, see Chief Executive (disambiguation).

A chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer, administrator, corporate administrator, executive, or executive officer in charge of total management of a corporation, company, organization, or agency. In internal communication and press releases, many companies capitalize the term and those of other high positions even when they are not proper nouns.

1 International use
2 Reporting structure
3 See also
- 3.1 Lists

[edit] International use

In some European Union countries, there are two separate boards; one executive board for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board 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 by the executive board and governance 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.

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, the chair (of the board) in public companies is more senior than the chief executive. Most public companies now split the roles of chair and chief executive.

In France, a CEO/MD is known as the "PDG" (président directeur général); in Sweden, the CEO/MD is known as "VD" (verkställande direktör); in Spain, the usual name is "director general"; while in Italy, the position is called "AD" (which stands for amministratore delegato).

[edit] Reporting structure

Typically, a CEO has a cadre of subordinate executives, each of which has specific functional responsibilities. These direct reporting relationships most often include a chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), chief marketing officer (CMO), chief information officer (CIO), and a director of human resources.

However, depending on the industry in which the company operates and/or the organizational structure the company has employed, various other functional areas may be highlighted through the CEO's direct span of control. Some of these less common monikers include the following: chief (business) development officer, chief knowledge officer, chief learning officer, chief strategy officer, chief risk officer, chief innovation process officer, chief credit officer, and chief creative officer.