Corporate title

Corporate titles or business titles are given to company and organization officials to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used in publicly and privately held for-profit corporations. In addition, many non-profit organizations, educational institutions, partnerships, and sole proprietorships also confer corporate titles.

Variations

There are considerable variations in the composition and responsibilities of corporate titles.

Within the corporate office or corporate center of a company, some companies have a chairman and CEO as the top-ranking executive, while the number two is the president and COO; other companies have a president and CEO but no official deputy. Typically, senior managers are "higher" than vice presidents, although many times a senior officer may also hold a vice president title, such as executive vice president and CFO. The board of directors is technically not part of management itself, although its chairman may be considered part of the corporate office if he or she is an executive chairman.

A corporation often consists of different businesses, whose senior executives report directly to the CEO or COO. If organized as a division then the top manager is often known as an executive vice president (for example, Todd Bradley, who used to head the Personal Systems Group in Hewlett-Packard). If that business is a subsidiary which has considerably more independence, then the title might be chairman and CEO.

In many countries, particularly in Europe and Asia, there is a separate executive board for day-to-day business and supervisory board (elected by shareholders) for control purposes. 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 seemingly allows for clear lines of authority. 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 United States and other countries that follow a single-board corporate structure, the board of directors (elected by the shareholders) is often equivalent to the European/Asian supervisory board, while the functions of the executive board may be vested either in the board of directors or in a separate committee, which may be called an operating committee (J.P. Morgan Chase),^[1] management committee (Goldman Sachs), executive committee (Lehman Brothers), or executive council (Hewlett-Packard), or executive board (HeiG) composed of the division/subsidiary heads and senior officers that report directly to the CEO.

United States

State laws in the United States traditionally required certain positions to be created within every corporation, such as president, secretary and treasurer. Today, the approach under the Model Business Corporation Act, which is employed in many states, is to grant companies discretion in determining which titles to have, with the only mandated organ being the board of directors.^[2]

Some states that do not employ the MBCA continue to require that certain offices be established. Under the law of Delaware, where most large US corporations are established, stock certificates must be signed by two officers with titles specified by law (e.g. a president and secretary or a president and treasurer).^[3] Every corporation incorporated in California must have a chairman of the board or a president (or both), as well as a secretary and a chief financial officer.^[4]

LLC-structured companies are generally run directly by their members (shareholders), but the members can agree to appoint officers such as a CEO, or to appoint "managers" to operate the company.^[5]

American companies are generally led by a chief executive officer (CEO). In some companies, the CEO also has the title of president. In other companies, the president is a different person, and the primary duties of the two positions are defined in the company's bylaws (or the laws of the governing legal jurisdiction). Many companies also have a chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO) and other senior positions as necessary such as chief information officer, chief sales officer, etc. that report to the president and CEO as "senior vice presidents" of the company. The next level of middle management may be called vice president, director or manager, depending on the size and required managerial depth of the company.^[6]

United Kingdom

In British English, the title of managing director is generally synonymous with that of chief executive officer.^[7] Managing directors do not have any particular authority under the Companies Act in the UK, but do have implied authority based on the general understanding of what their position entails, as well as any authority expressly delegated by the board of directors.^[8]

Japan and South Korea

In Japan, corporate titles are roughly standardized across companies and organizations; although there is variation from company to company, corporate titles within a company are always consistent, and the large companies in Japan generally follow the same outline.^[9] These titles are the formal titles that are used on business cards.^[10] Korean corporate titles are similar to those of Japan, as the South Korean corporate structure had been influenced by the Japanese model.^[11]

Legally, Japanese and Korean companies are only required to have a board of directors with at least one representative director. In Japanese, a company director is called a torishimariyaku (取締役) and the representative director is called a daihyo torishimariyaku (代表取締役). The equivalent Korean titles are isa (이사, 理事) and daepyo-isa (대표이사, 代表理事). These titles are often combined with lower titles, e.g. senmu torishimariyaku or jomu torishimariyaku for Japanese executives who are also board members.^[12][13] Most Japanese companies also have statutory auditors, who operate alongside the board of directors in a supervisory role.

The typical structure of executive titles in large companies includes the following:^{[12] [13][14]}

English gloss	Kanji (hanja)	Japanese	Korean	Comments
Chairman	会長 (會長)	Kaicho	Hwejang (회장)	Often a semi-retired president or company founder. Denotes a position with considerable power within the company exercised through behind-the-scenes influence via the active president.
Vice chairman	副会長 (副會長)	Fuku-kaicho	Bu-hwejang (부회장)	At Korean family-owned chaebol companies such as Samsung, the vice-chairman commonly holds the CEO title (i.e., Vice Chairman & CEO).
President	社長	Shacho	Sajang (사장)	Often CEO of the corporation. Some companies do not have the "chairman" position, in which case the "president" is the top position that is equally respected and authoritative.
Deputy president or Senior executive vice president	副社長	Fuku-shacho	Bu-sajang (부사장)	Reports to the president
Executive vice president or executive director	専務	Senmu	Jŏnmu (전무)
Senior vice president or managing director	常務	Jomu	Sangmu (상무)
Vice president or general manager or department head	部長	Bucho	Bujang (부장)	Highest non-executive title; denotes a head of a division/department. There is significant variation in the official English translation used by different companies.
Deputy general manager	次長	Jicho	Chajang (차장)	Direct subordinate to bucho/bujang
Manager or section head	課長	Kacho	Gwajang (과장)	Denotes a head of a team/section underneath a larger division/department.
Assistant manager or team leader	係長 (代理)	Kakaricho	Daeri' (대리)
Staff	社員	Shain	Sawon (사원)	Staff without managerial titles are often referred to without using a title at all

The top management group, comprising jomu/sangmu and above, is often referred to collectively as "senior management" (幹部 or 重役; kambu or juyaku in Japanese; ganbu or jungyŏk in Korean).

Some Japanese and Korean companies have also adopted American-style titles, but these are not yet widespread and their usage varies. For example, although there is a Korean translation for chief operating officer (최고운영책임자, choego unyŏng chaegimja), not many companies have yet adopted it with an exception of a few multi-national companies such as Samsung and CJ, while the chief financial officer title is often used alongside other titles such as bu-sajang (SEVP) or Jŏnmu (EVP).

Since the late 1990s, many Japanese companies have introduced the title of shikko yakuin (執行役員) or "officer," seeking to emulate the separation of directors and officers found in American companies. In 2002, the statutory title of shikko yaku (執行役) was introduced for use in companies that introduced a three-committee structure in their board of directors. The titles are frequently given to bucho and higher-level personnel. Although the two titles are very similar in intent and usage, there are several legal distinctions: shikko yaku make their own decisions in the course of performing work delegated to them by the board of directors, and are considered managers of the company rather than employees, with a legal status similar to that of directors. Shikko yakuin are considered employees of the company that follow the decisions of the board of directors, although in some cases directors may have the shikko yakuin title as well.^[15][16]

Corporate titles

• Chief academic officer or CAO – responsible for all academic aspects of an academic institution
• Chief accounting officer or CAO – responsible for overseeing all accounting functions, ensuring that ledger accounts, financial statements and cost control systems are operating effectively
• Chief administrative officer or CAO – responsible for the daily operations of a business and its performance
• Chief analytics officer or CAO – responsible for the analysis and interpretation of data relevant to a company's activities
• Chief architect or Enterprise Architect or EA – responsible for designing systems for high availability and scalability, specifically in technology companies
• Chief audit executive or CAE – responsible for the internal audit
• Chief business officer or CBO – responsible for the administrative, financial, and operations management of the organization, often combining the roles of chief administrative officer (CAO), chief financial officer (CFO), and chief operating officer (COO)
• Chief business development officer or CBDO – responsible for business development plans, design and implementation of processes to support business growth
• Chief brand officer or CBO – responsible for a brand's image, experience, and promise, and propagating it throughout all aspects of the company, overseeing marketing, advertising, design, public relations and customer service departments
• Chief commercial officer or CCO – responsible for commercial strategy and development
• Chief communications officer or CCO – responsible for communications to employees, shareholders, media, bloggers, influencers, the press, the community and the public
• Chief compliance officer – responsible for overseeing and managing regulatory compliance issues within an organization
• Chief content officer or CCO – responsible for developing and commissioning content (media) for broadcasting channels and multimedia exploitation.
• Chief creative officer or CCO – responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding
• Chief credit officer or CCO – responsible for a company's overall credit strategy including development of credit risk strategies and overseeing loan portfolios
• Chief customer officer or CCO – responsible for customer-centric companies for the total relationship with an organization’s customers.
• Chief data officer or CDO – responsible for enterprisewide governance and utilization of information as an asset, via data processing, analysis, data mining, information trading and other means
• Chief design officer or CDO – responsible for overseeing all design aspects of a company's products and services, including product design, graphic design, user experience design, industrial design, and package design, and possibly aspects of advertising, marketing, and engineering
• Chief digital officer or CDO – responsible for adoption of digital technologies, digital consumer experiences, the process of digital transformation, and devising and executing social strategies
• Chief diversity officer or CDO – responsible for strategy surrounding diversity and inclusion
• Chief engineering officer similar to the more common chief technology officer or CTO – responsible for technology/product R & D and/or manufacturing issues in a technology company, oversees the development of technology being commercialized
• Chief executive officer or CEO/(United States), chief executive or managing director (United Kingdom, Commonwealth and some other English-speaking countries) – responsible for the overall vision and direction of an organization, making the final decisions over all of the corporation's operations. The highest-ranking management officer of a corporation; often the chairman of the board.
• Chief experience officer or CXO (not to be confused with CxO, a term commonly used when referring to any one of various chief officers) – responsible for the overall experience of an organization's products and services
• Chief financial officer or CFO – responsible for all aspects of a corporation's finances
• Chief gaming officer or CGO – responsible for both the game development and the online/offline publishing functions of the company
• Chief human resources officer or CHRO – responsible for all aspects of human resource management and industrial relations policies, practices and operations for an organization
• Chief information officer or CIO – responsible for the company's information resources and processing environment; particularly in IT companies or companies that rely heavily on an IT infrastructure
• Chief information security officer or CISO – responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy and program to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected
• Chief innovation officer or CIO – responsible for organizational leadership on technology issues, management of the technology research and review function, ensuring the alignment of technology vision with business strategy, and for driving technology innovation throughout the entire organization
• Chief investment officer or CIO – responsible for the assets of an investment vehicle or investment management company and/or responsible for the asset-liability management (ALM) of typical large financial institutions such as insurers, banks and/or pension funds
• Chief knowledge officer or CKO – the CKO is responsible for managing intellectual capital and the custodian of knowledge management practices, usually in a legal organization
• Chief legal officer or CLO (may be referred to as the General Counsel or GC) – responsible for overseeing and identifying legal issues in all departments and their interrelation, as well as corporate governance and business policy
• Chief learning officer or CLO – the CLO is commonly responsible for all learning and training operations
• Chief marketing officer or CMO – responsible for the marketing activities in an organization, and may include sales management, product development, distribution channel management, marketing communications (including advertising and promotions), pricing, market research, and customer service
• Chief medical officer or CMO – especially in a pharmaceutical company, the person responsible for scientific and medical excellence of the company's research, development and products, or the highest ranking physician at a hospital. The title is used in many countries for the senior government official who advises on matters of public health importance.
• Chief networking officer or CNO – responsible for the social capital within the company and between the company and its partners
• Chief operating officer or COO/ director of operations for the nonprofit sector – responsible for the daily operation of the company; role is highly contingent and situational, changing from company to company and even from a CEO to their successor within the same company
• Chief privacy officer or CPO – responsible for all the privacy of the data in an organization
• Chief planning officer or CPO – responsible for the design and implementation of strategic management plans for businesses to increase their efficiency and profits
• Chief process officer or CPO – responsible for defining rules, policies, and guidelines to ensure that the main objectives follow the company strategy as well as establishing control mechanisms
• Chief procurement officer or CPO – responsible for the management, administration, and supervision of the company’s acquisition programs, source goods and services, and negotiate prices and contracts
• Chief product officer or CPO – responsible for all product-related matters. Usually includes product conception and development, production in general, innovation, project and product management
• Chief quality officer or CQO – responsible for setting up quality goals and assuring that those goals are kept
• Chief research officer or CRO – responsible for research within the organization
• Chief revenue officer or CRO – responsible for all revenue-related activities within the organization
• Chief risk officer (chief risk management officer) or CRO – responsible for enabling the efficient and effective governance of significant risks and opportunities
• Chief science officer or CSO – responsible for research, development and new technologies. In other companies, this is known as the chief scientist.
• Chief security officer or CSO – responsible for the security of personnel, physical assets and information in both physical and digital form
• Chief strategy officer (chief strategic planning officer) or CSO (CSPO) – responsible for assisting the chief executive officer with developing, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives
• Chief sustainability officer or CSO – responsible for the corporation's "environmental" programs
• Chief technology officer or CTO (sometimes chief technical officer) – responsible for the company's technology/R&D direction, overseeing the development of technology to be commercialized. (For an IT company, the subject matter would be similar to the CIO's, however the CTO's focus is technology for the firm to sell versus technology used for facilitating the firm's own operations.)
• Chief visionary officer or CVO – responsible for defining corporate strategies and working plans, advising the execution of moving a company forward
• Chief web officer or CWO – responsible for the entire online presence for their company, including intranet and internet

Senior management

The highest-level executives in senior management usually have titles beginning with "chief". The traditional three such officers are chief executive officer (CEO), chief operations officer (COO), and chief financial officer (CFO). Depending on the management structure, titles may exist instead of or are blended/overlapped with other traditional executive titles, such as president, various designations of vice presidents (e.g. VP of marketing), and general managers or directors of various divisions (such as director of marketing); the latter may or may not imply membership of the board of directors.

Certain other prominent positions have emerged, some of which are sector-specific. For example, CEO and chief risk officer (CRO) positions are often found in many types of financial services companies. Technology companies of all sorts now tend to have a chief technology officer (CTO) to manage technology development. A chief information officer (CIO) oversees IT (information technology) matters, either in companies that specialize in IT or in any kind of company that relies on it for supporting infrastructure.

Many companies now also have a chief marketing officer (CMO), particularly mature companies in competitive sectors, where brand management is a high priority. In creative/design industries, there is sometimes a chief creative officer (CCO), responsible for keeping the overall look and feel of different products consistent across a brand. A chief administrative officer may be found in many large complex organizations that have various departments or divisions. Additionally, many companies now call their top diversity leadership position the chief diversity officer (CDO). However, this and many other nontraditional and/or lower-ranking titles (see below) are not universally recognized as corporate officers, and they tend to be specific to particular organizational cultures or the preferences of employees.

• Chairman of the board – presiding officer of the corporate board of directors. The Chairman influences the board of directors, which in turn elects and removes the officers of a corporation and oversees the human, financial, environmental and technical operations of a corporation.
  • The CEO may also hold the title of chairman, resulting in an executive chairman. In this case, the board frequently names an independent member of the board as a lead director.
  • Executive chairman – the chairman's post may also exist as an office separate from that of CEO, and it is considered an executive chairman if that titleholder wields influence over company operations, such as Steve Case of AOL Time Warner and Douglas Flint of HSBC. In particular, the group chairmanship of HSBC is considered the top position of that institution, outranking the chief executive, and is responsible for leading the board and representing the company in meetings with government figures.^[17][18] Prior to the creation of the group management board in 2006, HSBC's chairman essentially held the duties of a chief executive at an equivalent institution, while HSBC's chief executive served as the deputy. After the 2006 reorganization, the management cadre ran the business, while the chairman oversaw the controls of the business through compliance and audit and the direction of the business.^[19]
  • Non-executive chairman – also a separate post from the CEO, unlike an executive chairman, a non-executive chairman does not interfere in day-to-day company matters. Across the world, many companies have separated the roles of chairman and CEO, often resulting in a non-executive chairman, saying that this move improves corporate governance.
• Chief of Staff is a corporate director level manager who has overall responsibility for the staff activity within the company who often would have responsibility of hiring and firing of the highest level managers and sometimes directors. They can work with and report directly to managing directors and the chief executive officer.
• Commissioner
• Financial Control Officer, FCO or FC, also Comptroller or Controller – supervises accounting and financial reporting within an organization
• Director or member of the board of directors – high-level official with a fiduciary responsibility of overseeing the operation of a corporation and elects or removes officers of a corporation; nominally, directors, other than the chairman are usually not considered to be employees of the company per se, although they may receive compensation, often including benefits; in publicly held companies. A board of directors is normally made up of members (directors) who are a mixture of corporate officials who are also management employees of the company (inside directors) and persons who are not employed by the company in any capacity (outside directors or non-executive directors). In privately held companies, the board of directors often only consists of the statutory corporate officials, and in sole proprietorship and partnerships, the board is entirely optional, and if it does exist, only operates in an advisory capacity to the owner or partners. Non-profit corporations are governed by a board of trustees instead of a board of directors
• Director – a manager of managers within an organization who is often responsible for a major business function and who sometimes reports to a vice president (note that in some financial services companies the title vice president has a different meaning). Often used with name of a functional area; finance director, director of finance, marketing director, and so on. Not to be confused with a member of the board of directors, who is also referred to as a director. Usually denotes the lowest executive level within a company, except in the banking industry. Alternatively, a manager of managers is often referred to as a "senior manager' or as an "associate vice president", depending upon levels of management, and industry type.
• Fellow – In a dual career ladder organization a fellow is often a very senior technical position and is equal to a director or VP
• President – legally recognized highest "titled" corporate officer, and usually a member of the board of directors. There is much variation; often the CEO also holds the title of president, while in other organizations if there is a separate CEO, the president is then second highest-ranking position. In such a case the president is often the COO and is considered to be more focused upon daily operations compared to the CEO, who is supposed to be the visionary. If the corporate president is not the COO (such as Richard Parsons of Time Warner from 1995–2001), then many division heads report directly to the CEO themselves, with the president taking on special assignments from the CEO.
• Secretary or company secretary – legally recognized "titled" corporate officer who reports to the board of directors and is responsible for keeping the records of the board and the company. This title is often concurrently held by the treasurer in a dual position called secretary-treasurer; both positions may be concurrently held by the CFO. Note, however, that the Secretary has a reporting line to the board of directors, regardless of any other reporting lines conferred by concurrent titles.
• Treasurer – legally recognized corporate officer entrusted with the fiduciary responsibility of caring for company funds. Often this title is held concurrently with that of secretary in a dual role called secretary-treasurer. It can also be held concurrently with the title of CFO or fall under the jurisdiction of one, though the CFO tends to oversee the finance department instead, which deals with accounting and audits, while the treasurer deals directly with company funds. Note, however, that the treasurer has a reporting line to the board of directors, regardless of any other reporting lines conferred by concurrent titles.
• Superintendent
• Owner (sometimes proprietor or sole proprietor, for sole proprietorships)
• Partner – Used in many different ways. This may indicate a co-owner as in a legal partnership or may be used in a general way to refer to a broad class of employees or temporary/contract workers who are often assigned field or customer service work. Associate is often used in a similar way.
• Principal – may refer to an owner of the business or a high-level technical worker such as Principal Engineer or Principal Scientist. The Principal title is often used in dual career ladder^[20] organizations and may be equivalent to manager or director.^[21]
• Vice Chair or Vice Chairman – officer of the board of directors who may stand in for the chairman in his/her absence. However, this type of vice chairman title on its own usually has only an advisory role and not an operational one (such as Ted Turner at Time Warner).^[22] An unrelated definition of vice chair describes an executive who is higher ranking or has more seniority than executive vice president. Sometimes, EVPs report to the vice chair, who in turn reports directly to the CEO (so vice chairs in effect constitute an additional layer of management), other vice chairs have more responsibilities but are otherwise on an equal tier with EVPs. Executive vice chairman are usually not necessarily on the board of directors. Royal Bank of Canada previously used vice chair in their inner management circle until 2004 but have since renamed them as group head.

Middle management

• Associate – Used in many different ways in US business. Often used to indicate a customer service position or temporary/part-time employee. Some US businesses use the term for all or most exempt employees. In legal firms an associate attorney indicates a lawyer who is not a partner of the law firm. Partner is often used in a similar way.
• Supervisor
• Foreman
• General manager or GM
• Manager
• Of Counsel – A lawyer working on a part-time or temporary basis for a company or law firm.
• Vice president – Middle or upper manager in a corporation. They often appear in various hierarchical layers such as executive vice president, senior vice president, associate vice president, or assistant vice president, with EVP usually considered the highest and usually reporting to the CEO or president. Many times, corporate officers such as the CFO, COO, CIO, CTO, secretary, or treasurer will concurrently hold vice president titles, commonly EVP or SVP. Vice presidents in small companies are also referred to as chiefs of a certain division, such as vice president for finance, or vice president for administration. Note that in some financial contexts, the title of vice president is actually subordinate to a director.

See also

• Corporate governance
• Corporate liability
• Identification with corporation

References

1. Dominus, Susan (2012-10-03). "Ina Drew, Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase's $6 Billion Mistake". The New York Times.
2. "Model Business Corporation Act" (PDF). Retrieved 19 August 2013.
3. "Delaware General Corporation Law § 158". Retrieved 19 December 2013. Every holder of stock represented by certificates shall be entitled to have a certificate signed by, or in the name of the corporation by the chairperson or vice-chairperson of the board of directors, or the president or vice-president, and by the treasurer or an assistant treasurer, or the secretary or an assistant secretary of such corporation representing the number of shares registered in certificate form.
4. "California Corporations Code § 312". Retrieved 19 December 2013. A corporation shall have a chairman of the board or a president or both, a secretary, a chief financial officer and such other officers with such titles and duties as shall be stated in the bylaws or determined by the board and as may be necessary to enable it to sign instruments and share certificates.
5. Lawrence, George. "Does an LLC Have to Have a President or CEO?". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
6. Lowe, Keith. "The Relevance of Employee Titles". Retrieved 20 August 2013.
7. "What is MANAGING DIRECTOR?". The Law Dictionary. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
8. "The Powers of a Managing Director". Jordans. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
9. Arthur Murray Whitehill (1991). Japanese management: tradition and transition. Taylor & Francis. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-415-02253-8.
10. Rochelle Kopp (2000). The rice-paper ceiling: breaking through Japanese corporate culture. Stone Bridge Press, Inc. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-880656-51-8.
11. Meg Ulrich. "Businesstips". Business in Asia. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
12. William Lazer and Midori Rynn (1990). "Japan". In Vishnu H. Kirpalani. International business handbook. Haworth series in international business 1. Routledge. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-86656-862-3.
13. John C. Condon (1984). With respect to the Japanese: a guide for Americans. Country orientation series 4. Intercultural Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-933662-49-0.
14. Ezra F. Vogel (1975). Modern Japanese organization and decision-making. University of California Press. pp. 135, 137. ISBN 978-0-520-02857-9.
15. "執行役／執行役員　Operating Officer". Nomura Research Institute. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
16. Suzuki, Kengo. "執行役と執行役員の異同". Retrieved 20 August 2013.
17. Wilson, Harry; Farrell, Sean; Aldrick, Philip (2010-09-22). "HSBC investors against Michael Geoghegan becoming chairman". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
18. "HSBC chief Michael Geoghegan 'to quit' after failing to get top job". News.com.au. 2010-09-24. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
19. Reece, Damian (2010-12-20). "HSBC ex-chief Michael Geoghegan relaxes as another marathon looms". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
20. "Dual Ladder Career Path at Sun (Whiteboard infinity)". Blogs.sun.com. 2005-12-15. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
21. "Principal Engineer—ASCE Definition of Classification". Projectpartners.com. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
22. Welsh, James (2003-01-29). "Ted Turner quits as AOLTW Vice Chairman". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2011-12-31.

External links

• Taking Stock - Corporate Execs Get Scammed, FBI