I've ALWAYS been confused about this. Is the CEO, Chairman or President higher? In Microsoft's case, Bill Gates' occupation is apparently still listed as Chairman of Microsoft. However it's been stated in several articles that Bill Gates has left Microsoft, and that the CEO, since 2000 is Steve Ballmer. Now, is there a President of Microsoft then? Who is higher, the CEO or the Chairman, and what is the difference?
The Chairman leads the board of directors, while the CEO is head of the management committee and reports to the board of the directors. I think president and CEO are the same thing.
[QUOTE="kruesader"]I think they generally tend to depend on the organisational structure of the company in question.ATKisNeat
Chairman is someone who has a say on what goes on but is generally not in power. There are multiple chairmen but only one CEO. I think =D Isn't the "Chairman" the Chairman of the Board generally? Meaning he is the most powerful of the board/committee members?
It actually matters what part of the world you are from.
carrot-cake
Not really, technically the Chairman is the highest..K I was wrong. The chairman and the CEO have the same powers only over different boards. The president is the leader.
It actually matters what part of the world you are from.
BumFluff122
Not really, technically the Chairman is the highest..K I was wrong. The chairman and the CEO have the same powers only over different boards. The president is the leader. Are you sure? I thought the Chairman was always the highest because he leads the board, while the president and CEO are kind of the same.
Are you sure? I thought the Chairman was always the highest because he leads the board, while the president and CEO are kind of the same.
carrot-cake
I make a point to usually look things up before I make a false post, such as I did with my first post lol. Look up CEO on wikipedia and President. In Europoean companies there are two seperate boards. One executive board and one supervisory board. The chairman heads one while the CEO heads the other. The president is who they report to. From what I got from the article in the US and Canada president and CEO are often used interchangably. In soem parts of the world there are multipple CEOs for companies, such as Asia.
Are you sure? I thought the Chairman was always the highest because he leads the board, while the president and CEO are kind of the same.
BumFluff122
I make a point to usually look things up before I make a false post, such as I did with my first post lol. Look up CEO on wikipedia and President. In Europoean companies there are two seperate boards. One executive board and one supervisory board. The chairman heads one while the CEO heads the other. The president is who they report to. From what I got from the article in the US and Canada president and CEO are often used interchangably. In soem parts of the world there are multipple CEOs for companies, such as Asia. Ahh, I see.
President > CEO > Chairman President - Directs general company direction CEO - Directs company on smaller day to day operations Chairman - Head of the board of directors
[QUOTE="markop2003"]President > CEO > Chairman President - Directs general company direction CEO - Directs company on smaller day to day operations Chairman - Head of the board of directors Exactly, but what does the Board of Directors do?
[QUOTE="duxup"]Ballmer makes day to day and most organizational decisions. Bill is there to oversee the work and head up the board of directors.th3warr1or
But does Ballmer override Bill's authority or does Bill hold higher authority? (Ignoring who is founder). I mean who can fire who? Bill is higher. Firing is done by the shareholders though, which includes Bill and Balmer.
[QUOTE="th3warr1or"][QUOTE="markop2003"]President > CEO > Chairman President - Directs general company direction CEO - Directs company on smaller day to day operations Chairman - Head of the board of directors Exactly, but what does the Board of Directors do? Run the company, the same way that ministers run a country.
[QUOTE="duxup"]Ballmer makes day to day and most organizational decisions. Bill is there to oversee the work and head up the board of directors.th3warr1or
But does Ballmer override Bill's authority or does Bill hold higher authority? (Ignoring who is founder). I mean who can fire who? Bill with support of the board could fire Ballmer if he wished. Having said that Ballmer and Bill have both been around the company for ages, both have lots of stock (that helps to determine the makeup of the board) and friends on the board.
Day to day decisions though are likely still Ballmer's call. It would be an awkward (and PR disaster) for Bill to fire off an e-mail saying "ignore what Steve said, do what I said" to folks who usually just report to Steve.
I don't doubt large strategic decisions are discussed by Steve, Bill, and others and they make the decision together.
So that makes Chairman basically like a General(deciding what should be done overall), while the CEO is like a Sergeant(that gives the direct and immediate orders to everyone else, such as charge, hold or whatnot)? Did I get the examples right? [probably not].
[QUOTE="th3warr1or"][QUOTE="duxup"]Ballmer makes day to day and most organizational decisions. Bill is there to oversee the work and head up the board of directors.duxup
But does Ballmer override Bill's authority or does Bill hold higher authority? (Ignoring who is founder). I mean who can fire who? Bill with support of the board could fire Ballmer if he wished. Having said that Ballmer and Bill have both been around the company for ages, both have lots of stock (that helps to determine the makeup of the board) and friends on the board.
Day to day decisions though are likely still Ballmer's call. It would be an awkward (and PR disaster) for Bill to fire off an e-mail saying "ignore what Steve said, do what I said" to folks who usually just report to Steve.
I don't doubt large strategic decisions are discussed by Steve, Bill, and others and they make the decision together.
That's what I've been told. I heard the CEO is HIRED by the Board(and hence Chairman), or majority share holder to run the company.. something like that. Idk.
The Chairman leads the board of directors, while the CEO is head of the management committee and reports to the board of the directors. I think president and CEO are the same thing.
The owner of the company or the majority share holder would be the highest position and maybe he could set himself up as CEO as well or president or chairman or whatever or get people to do those jobs.So the owner is the highest.
Log in to comment