What Does CEO Stand For?

CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer: the three words

Each word in the title tells you something about the job.

So the CEO full form describes someone who is first among the people who run things. Other "chief" titles follow the same pattern, such as the CFO for money and the COO for operations. Together these leaders are often called the C suite.

What does CEO stand for in business, day to day?

The work changes with the size of the company, but a few duties show up almost everywhere:

• Strategy. Deciding which markets to enter, which products to build and which to drop.
• People. Hiring and leading the senior team, and shaping the culture of the place.
• Money. Approving budgets and big investments with the finance chief.
• The public face. Speaking for the company to staff, customers, investors and reporters.
• The board link. Reporting results to the directors and carrying out their major decisions.

At a small business with five employees, the owner may be the CEO, the bookkeeper and the delivery driver all at once. At a large firm, the CEO may rarely touch daily tasks and spend most of the week on planning and meetings.

CEO, president, chair and founder

These titles overlap, and one person can hold more than one of them.

• President: often the second highest officer, though in some companies the CEO also carries the title "president and CEO."
• Chair of the board: leads the board meetings. Some companies give this role to the CEO; others keep the two jobs apart so the board can check the chief executive.
• Founder: the person who started the business. A founder may stay on as CEO or hand the job to someone else.
• Owner: the person who owns the business. In a big public company, the owners are the shareholders, not the CEO.

How to say and write CEO

Say it as three letters, "see ee oh." Since nobody pronounces it as one syllable, it counts as an initialism. The labels get sorted out on the acronym vs abbreviation page.

• Modern style drops the dots: CEO, not C.E.O.
• The plural is CEOs. Use CEO's only for possession: "the CEO's office."
• Use "a" before it: "a CEO," because the first sound is "see."
• In formal writing, spell out "chief executive officer" on first use if your readers may not know it, then use the letters.

CEO in sentences

• "The bakery's founder still serves as CEO and works the counter on Saturdays."
• "The board named a new CEO after a six month search."
• "Our CEO will join the all hands call at noon to share the quarterly results."
• "Two former CEOs spoke on the panel about growing a family business."
• "She went from intern to CEO in twenty years."

What does CEO mean outside a company?

People also use the letters loosely. "CEO of the kitchen" is a playful way to say someone runs the cooking at home. Online, "CEO of" something means a person who is very good at it or famous for it, such as "the CEO of bad puns." This use is casual and friendly, not a real job title.

Government agencies and schools rarely use the title; they have directors, secretaries, superintendents or presidents instead. Hospitals, charities and city utilities often do use it. For more titles and short forms from the workplace, browse the business acronyms section or the page on HR.