According to abbreviationfinder, a CEO, i.e. a Chief Executive Officer (British English: Managing Director, MD*) is at the top of the corporate hierarchy and heads the entire company. He is therefore responsible for strategic decisions and is often also the chairman of the board (Chairman of the Board).
Several chief officers for different areas report to the CEO. The most important are Chief Operations Officer ( COO ) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and, depending on the industry, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), etc etc
*Caution: in a US company, a managing director is a middle-level executive.
President
The title “President” is used in English in politics, at universities, in non-profit organizations, but also in large companies. A president usually acts as COO in a corporation and is therefore subordinate to the CEO. In large corporations there are often several presidents, each responsible for a business area.
Vice President (VP)
A vice president is generally not a deputy to the president. Rather, there are different vice presidents for different areas (human resources, finance, etc.), who usually all report to the CEO, COO or the president. There are also different types of vice presidents. Depending on the exact title, its degree is higher or lower. Here is a hierarchy ranking:
- Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) = Deputy President
- Executive Vice President (EVP)
- Senior Vice President (SVP)
- Corporate Vice President (CVP)
- First Vice President (FVP)
- Vice President (VP)
- Assistant Vice President or Associate Vice President (AVP)
President or CEO?
Many companies have either a president-vice president hierarchy or an officer hierarchy, or even mix both systems. There is therefore no 100% match of titles when comparing different companies.
