Two of the most important people in the company are the chief executive officer (CEO) and the chief financial officer (CFO). The CEO supervises executives who run different aspects of the company's operations, and they in turn supervise individual department heads or other mid-level managers. In conglomerate companies, the CEO of the parent company may supervise the presidents of subsidiary companies.
The CFO is responsible for all financial transactions and reporting, including preparing the financial statements required by the
SEC.
These include the annual 10-k filing, which is
audited
in a process supervised by the audit committee, and the unaudited quarterly filing.
Besides the CEO and CFO, corporations may appoint other officers to head different aspects of the company's business, such as a chief information officer (CIO) to be in charge of the company's information technology systems, or a chief operating officer (COO) to head the company's day-to-day operations.
Corporation titles
For a company to legally incorporate, the state where that incorporation occurs requires that the company appoint, at minimum, a president, secretary, and treasurer. In most states, a single person can hold all 3 titles.
In many companies, the CEO takes the title of president. Each company organizes its management structure a little differently, so the same title may go to different officers at different companies.
The CFO is responsible for all financial transactions and reporting, including preparing the financial statements required by the
