Chief, Chairman or CEO? Names at the top

What is the job title of the person at the top of a company or organisation? There is no single answer. In some places it is chairman, in others it might be chief executive, managing director or CEO (Chief Executive Officer). The answer often depends on the person’s exact role and also the size and culture of the company. Here are some common examples:

• Chairman
• Chief executive
• Director
• Head
• MD (managing director)
• COO (chief operating officer)
• CEO (chief executive officer)
• CXO (chief experience officer)

You will notice the last three all have something in common, they use the format ‘chief xxxx officer’ and in larger companies these can multiply so you end up with a chief financial officer (CFO), chief data officer (CDO), chief compliance officer (CCO), chief security officer (CSO) and so on. These executive roles are often referred to as the ‘C-suite’ because they all start with the letter C, a way of describing the group of people running the company.

There are also some common informal or slang words that are used for the person (or people) at the top of the company or department. The way these are used depends on the workplace, but it is useful to understand their meaning.

This list of words are usually used to refer to a specific person:

• Boss
• Chief
• Gaffer
• Guv’nor
• Skipper
• Ma’am
• Big cheese (usually only used for the head of the company)
• Head honcho (usually only used for the head of the company)
• Top dog (usually only used for the head of the company)

The next list of words are used to refer to executives more generally, especially if they are very wealthy.

• Fat cat
• Bigwig

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