Chair is a term frequently used for the highest office in an assembly such as a committee, commission, or board. The term is also applied to the holder of the office. While the term chairman remains in widespread use, chairperson, and chair have become increasingly common.

The duties of the chairman are to preside over the assembly and to conduct its business in an orderly fashion.Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 10^th edition, Perseus Books Group, Cambridge MA, 2000 When the assembly is not in session, the chairman often acts informally as its head, its representative to the outside world, its spokesperson, etc.

A majority of FTSE 100 companies in the UK have a "chairman," as do the boards of most Fortune 500 companies in the U.S.Fact: date=April 2008

Corporate governance

A chair is selected by a company's board to lead the board of directors, preside over meetings, and lead the board to consensus from the disparate points of view of its members. The chair is the presiding director over the other directors on the board and is expected to be fair, a good listener, and a good communicator. Directors have a high level of fiduciary responsibility for overseeing the operation of a corporation.

The term president is often used interchangeably with chair, although this usage is much more prevalent in the United States. The CEO is the head of the management committee and usually reports to the board, which is headed by the chair.

In public companies, the role of the chairman of the board is distinct from that of the company's CEO or managing director. This point has more recently been brought into focus after corporate governance shortcomings were observed in companies where the two roles are combined. It is believed that the separation of functions within the board of directors or in the structure of the supervisory board and management board would facilitate control over the workings of the company and increase the accountability of the CEO or chair of the management board. In an attempt to inject transparency into the relationship between executive management and the board of directors as well as between management and the market or shareholders, the UK Cadbury Report was published in 1992. Its recommendations have been adopted to a greater or lesser extent by some countries within the European Union and the United States, as well as by the World Bank..

Chair of the Board types and their relation to the company management

In the case of companies and similarly-organized bodies, there are generally two types of Chair: Non-executive and Executive.

Non-executive Chair of Board:

• A part-time officeholder who sits on and chairs the main board of a company
• Provides support and advice to a CEO.
• This position usually entails fulfilling a similar function on a number of additional board committees, as well as being a political figurehead of the Company.