Managing Director

Managing Director

(Chief Executive, Chief Executive Officer, CEO)

The managing director has overall responsibility for running the company in the best interests of the shareholders – in other words, in a profitable and legal way. In the YE scheme, he or she also acts as the chair in board meetings with a casting vote on decisions. As running any company is a big job, and needs lots of skills, the managing director has a number of functional directors (as listed below) to assist them.

Within Young Enterprise companies, managing directors sometimes are expected to, or volunteer to do most of the actual work. This is not what the role should entail. The managing directors main role is to identify where the company is going, what decisions need making, and what those decisions should be – based on the proposals and advice of the other board members. So being a managing director means spending most of your time weighing up decisions, negotiating and mediating between other board members, and taking responsibility for putting things right when they go wrong.

This role is for you if you are a people person, are approachable, and good at leading teams and groups. You also need to be able analyse and understand the information you receive from your fellow boards members to make good decisions.

This role is not for you if you avoid conflict, are indecisive (it is often better to make a wrong decision than none at all), or prefer doing rather than managing.