The chief executive officer is the American term for the managing board member of a company.
According to abbreviationfinder, the term Chief Executive Officer comes from the Anglo-Saxon world, where the term means the sole CEO of a company. The term Chief Executive Officer is abbreviated to CEO. In Anglo-Saxon, the term is legally binding, similar to the term ” manager “.” in Germany. In the course of globalization, the title CEO is now being used more and more often in German-speaking countries. Here chief executive officer means the management. Unlike in English-speaking countries, however, there can be several managing directors but only one CEO per company. From a legal point of view, the title CEO in Germany, in contrast to the title of managing director, has no meaning. The term chief executive officer is a kind of addition in German companies and rather describes the activity or function of a person within the company.
The duties of a CEO
As a rule, however, the CEO usually takes on the typical tasks of a managing director, which means that the chief executive officer develops the strategic direction of the company and determines its position in the market compared to the competition. In Germany, too, the CEO is usually the highest decision-making authority at management level and reports to the board of directors. The CEO is also responsible for the company’s figures, such as sales and profits, but also for losses. The person who fills the position of CEO should therefore be characterized by a high sense of responsibility and the ability to make decisions and live with the consequences.
In general, however, it must be noted that the term chief executive officer does not have a uniform meaning internationally. As a result, the CEO is counted at the top or at the middle hierarchy level within a company in different countries, depending on the situation. In addition to the CEO of a company, there is also a Chief Financial Officer ( CFO ) or a Chief Operating Officer ( COO ).
Example
Well-known examples of CEOs: Markus Berger-De Léon was CEO of the VZ Group for a year, Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google, Lars Hinrichs was the CEO of Xing and Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon.
Alternative spellings
Chief Executive Director, Chief Executive Manager