Chairman

Shouldn't this be chairperson nowadays? Are there animal rights activists around here as well? ChairMammal maybe? Chairbot? You know that day's coming...

You know you’ve made it to the big time when you’re elected as chairman of a board of directors. All public companies have to have a board, and most private companies and non-profits have them as well. A board of directors advises the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on strategy and the general direction the company should take. They carefully analyze the company’s financial results and can even override a decision made by the CEO. The chairman of the board presides over meetings and tries to get everyone to come to an agreement on controversial issues. The chairman also helps to select new board members when someone’s term is up (usually around six years).

As more and more women become the heads of boards, there appears to be a need for a different title (this reached something of a cultural head when Janet Yellen became the first woman to be chair of the Federal Reserve). Some go by “chair” or “chairperson” or even “madam chairperson.”

There have been many public battles between CEOs and Chairmen of the Board, and boards do have the power to fire a CEO. One of the most famous firings by a board happened when Steve Jobs of Apple was fired at the request of CEO John Sculley. And we all know what happened after that...by 1996, Apple fired Sculley and bought the company Jobs had started, NeXT, making him the new CEO. By 2018, Apple became the first company in the world to be valued at $1 trillion.