A chairperson is the political correct term for the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. Meetings are sometimes held around conference tables. ... An organization (U.S. spelling) or organisation (U.K. spelling) is a formal group of people with one or more shared goals. ... A committee is a (relatively) small group that can serve one of several functions: Governance: in organizations too large for all the members to participate in decisions affecting the organization as a whole, a committee (such as a Board of Directors) is given the power to make decisions. ... A deliberative body (or deliberative assembly) is an organization which collectively makes decisions after debate and discussion. ...

In order to avoid what some see as sexist assumptions with use of the term chairman, the position is more often referred to as chairperson or simply chair. Alternatively, the title of chairwoman is sometimes used if the incumbent is female. The term chairman is actually taken from the original term chairmanager, and as such is already gender non-specific and is appropriate to refer to either sex with the term. Gender-neutral language (gender-generic, gender-inclusive, non-sexist, or sex-neutral language) is language that attempts to refer neither to males nor females when discussing an abstract or hypothetical person whose sex cannot otherwise be determined. ... A chair or seat is also a seat of office, authority, or dignity, such as the chairperson of a committee, or a professorship at a college or university, or the individual that presides over business proceedings. ... The incumbent, in politics, is the current holder of a political office. ...

Function

Typically, a chairperson is responsible for determining the final agenda for each meeting, ensuring that all issues raised during it are addressed, and ensuring all participants operate within the rules of order – rules previously defined and agreed to for the group. Look up Agenda on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Agenda may refer to: agenda - points to be discussed. ... Rules of order, also known as standing orders or rules of procedure, are the written rules of parliamentary procedure adopted by a deliberative assembly, which detail the processes used by the body to make decisions. ...

A rotating chair is a person who functions in that capacity only for that meeting and will cede it to another for the next meeting.

Types

Generally, there are two types of chairpersons: non-executive and executive.

A non-executive chairperson will sit on and chair the main board of a company and be a part-time officer who usually provides support and advice to a chief executive officer (CEO). This position usually entails fulfulling a similar function on a number of ancillary board committees. It has been suggested that Board of Trustees be merged into this article or section. ... A company in the broadest sense is an aggregation of people who stay together for a common purpose. ... A chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or executive officer of a corporation, company, or agency. ...

An executive chairperson is a full-time position who typically not only leads the board but will also take a hands-on role in its functioning. An executive chairperson frequently sits on the management executive of the company.

Corporate governance

So far as the boards of public companies are concerned, the role of the chairman of the board as distinct from that of the company's CEO or managing director has more recently been brought into focus, stemming from alleged corporate governance shortcomings observed in companies where the two roles are combined. A pivotal document regarding effective governance is the Cadbury Report, the recommendations of which have been adopted to greater or lesser extent by the European Union, the United States, the World Bank, and others. The phrase Chairman of the Board has several meanings: Chairman of the Board is the term used to denote the leader of a corporations board of directors. ... Managing director is the term used for the chief executive of many limited companies in the United Kingdom and some other English speaking countries. ... Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. ... The Cadbury Report, titled Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance, sets out recommendations on the arrangement of company boards and accounting systems to mitigate European Union, the United States, the World Bank, and others, External link Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance (aka the Cadbury Report) Caution - PDF Categories: Economic Stubs ... Logo of the World Bank The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means...

It is common for board members to hold memberships of several boards and committees at once. Diversifying board memberships gives a broader sense of what is appropriate when making decisions.

A chairperson is selected by a company's shareholders. A chairperson's role is often to build a consensus from what can be disparate points of view. Therefore, the chairperson must be fair, a good listener, and a good communicator. A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation), that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. ... Consensus has two common meanings. ... A point of view, viewpoint or POV, is the following: On a given topic, a point of view is a cognitive perspective. ...

Other uses

• In the People's Republic of China, the title of "Chairman" is often used interchangeably with that of president (e.g., Chairman Mao).
• A character by the name of Chairperson appears in Capcom's Rival Schools games.