You can become a chairman appointment or a vote of the body over which the chairman will preside, or an outside person or committee with the authority to make selections. A chairman is appointed to lead operations in a variety of organizations, but a chairmanship in the corporate context is the most likely to provide a career path and compensation for services. Every company has a board of directors and a chairman who serves as the board’s chairman.
A chairman preside over a group of people, acting as the group’s organizer and final arbiter of disagreements. A chairman of a corporate board of directors is usually either an executive or a non-executive of the company. In the United States, it is common for the chairman of the board to also serve as the company’s chief executive officer (CEO), whereas in the United Kingdom, the chairman of the board is more likely to be a non-executive.
You must be qualified to run a company to become the chairman of a board of directors in an executive capacity. You must develop the credentials to be hired as a corporation’s most senior executive unless you own the company and control the majority of the stock and can appoint yourself to the position. The more a company grows, the more stringent its hiring requirements become.
Executive positions typically require a bachelor’s degree in business administration and, in some cases, a master’s degree in business administration or a related field, such as law. Working your way up from an entry-level position to a management position and finally to an executive position is common. Some companies offer executive training programs that will place you in an executive position immediately upon completion.
A lateral move can also help you become a chairman. If you have the necessary education and experience in one company, you can apply to another to fill a CEO position. The difficulty of getting hired a company is proportional to the size of its operations. Moving up in a smaller company is easier, and this can serve as a stepping stone to a lateral move to a larger company.
Non-executive board members and board chairs are chosen from outside the company non-executive boards. You’ll almost certainly need to be a well-known professional in your field to become a chairman on this type of board. Shareholders vote to elect board members in some larger public corporations. To become chairman in this case, you must first get on the ballot and be elected to the board. Then you’ll have to persuade the board to name you chairman.