Director-general
Encyclopedia
The term director-general (plural directors-general, as "general" is postpositive
Post-positive adjective
A postpositive adjective is an adjective that appears after the noun that it modifies. In some languages this is the normal syntax, but in English it is rare, largely confined to archaic or institutional expressions. Aplenty, galore, and the informal extraordinaire are examples of adjectives that...

) is a title given the highest executive
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...

 officer within a government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

al, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institution
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...

.

European Union

In the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

, each department (called a directorate-general
Directorate-General
A Directorate-General is a branch of an administration dedicated to a specific field of expertise.* The European Commission: Commission Directorates-General are each headed by a European Commissioner;* The European Patent Office: EPO Directorates-General;...

) is headed by a non-political director-general. This is roughly equivalent to a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 permanent secretary
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...

.

Australia

In most Australian states, the director-general is the most senior civil servant in any government department, reporting only to the democratically-elected minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

 representing that department. In Victoria and the Australian Government, the equivalent position is the secretary
Departmental Secretary
A departmental secretary is the head of an Australian Commonwealth or state government department especially in Victoria...

 of the department.

Canada

In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, a director general is not the highest civil servant in a department. Directors general typically report to a more senior civil servant, e.g. at the assistant deputy minister level. Deputy ministers are the highest level bureaucrat in the Canadian civil service
Canadian civil service
The Public Service of Canada is the staff, or bureaucracy, of the federal government of Canada. Its function is to support the Canadian monarch, and to handle the hiring of employees for the federal government ministries...

. At school boards in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, the director general is the highest-ranking employee.

France

In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, the similar word président-directeur général (short: PDG) means the highest person in a company, corresponding to the CEO.

Italy

In Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, the direttore generale of a company is a corporate officer who reports to CEO (amministratore delegato) and has duties similar to a chief operating officer
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...

.

Spain

In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, México
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and other Spanish-speaking countries, the term "director general" of a company (similar to a US corporation) means the highest person managing the company and translates as the CEO into United States English.

Sweden

In Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, the similar word generaldirektör (short:GD) means the head of a government agency
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...

.

United Kingdom

In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, director-general is the professional head of an executive agency
Executive agency
An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland...

 which contains other agencies headed by director
Technical director
The Technical Director or Technical Manager is usually a senior technical person within a software company, film studio, theatrical company or television studio...

s. For example the chief executive of the British Broadcasting Corporation is called the director-general. The head of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

s internal security service MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

is also a director-general, who operates at permanent Secretary
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...

 (Grade 1) level. (See British Civil Service#Grading schemes for details.)

United States

This term is commonly used in international organisations and government departments, though often called an executive director or managing director in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.
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