CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, and is often the title of a person who holds the highest position in a company or on a board. A related title is president, which may be used in place of CEO. The title of president of a company was commonly used for years, but in the democratic sense, the people choose a president. In the sense of a company, the workers of the company in most cases do not choose a president, so CEO makes more sense since companies frequently are not run on democratic principles.

Some large companies may actually have several CEOs, or at least a CEO for every department. Small companies, and small non-profit agencies usually have a single CEO, and a vice-president who takes over for the CEO when needed, or several vice presidents simply called executive officers.

How you get to be a CEO is very individualized depending upon the size of the company, the person in question’s background and education, and the type of company. Often, when a company first begins, the founder of the company acts as its CEO. Later, if the company is profitable, the founder may recognize he is not the best leader for the company, or would like to pursue other career goals and may hire a CEO to run the company.

On boards, both profit and nonprofit, a CEO may be elected from a few worthy candidates. Again, the founder of a corporation may be the primary choice, but many times, especially when the company produces a product, the inventor who founds the company may really have no interest in running it. He or she may far prefer someone with greater business acumen to handle the day-to-day details of being “the boss.”

In non-profit groups, limits may be set as to how many terms someone may serve as a CEO or president of a company. This is not always the case, and determination of who the CEO is does not always occur by election. Sometimes when a nonprofit organization remains small, a small board consisting of a CEO, a secretary, treasurer or chief financial officer (CFO) and a few other board members will rotate the CEO position.

Being a CEO may mean being responsible for overseeing many different branches of a company, or simply helping to run small board meetings and overseeing small organizations. The CEO may be present at meetings given for stockholders, may sign paychecks, and may take an active role in managing the company and setting goals.

The talented CEO knows that the greatest power he or she may possess is that of delegation, sharing the work and allowing other employees to have opportunities to make executive decisions, and grow with the company. The CEO who never delegates is likely to be highly overworked, particularly in a large company. Those who are interested in heading companies are most likely to arrive at their goal by pursuing degrees in business management, particularly advanced degrees. Management skills are the hallmark of the talented CEO, as he or she stewards the company into success.