A vice president or vice-president, also director in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

, is an

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

who is below the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

(chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on the executive branch of the government, university or company. The name comes from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

term ''

vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'' meaning "in place of" and typically serves as ''

pro tempore ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to 'for the time being' in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a '' locum tenens'' ('placeholder'). The phrase is ...

'' (

: ’for the time being’) to the president. In some countries, the vice president is called the ''deputy president''. In everyday speech, the abbreviation ''VP'' is used.

In government

, a vice president is a person whose primary responsibility is to act in place of the

on the event of the president's death, resignation or incapacity. Vice presidents are either elected jointly with the president as their

running mate A running mate is a person running together with another person on a joint ticket during an election. The term is most often used in reference to the person in the subordinate position (such as the vice presidential candidate running with a pre ...

, or more rarely, appointed independently after the president's election. Most governments with vice presidents have one person in this role at any time, although in some countries there are two or more vice presidents–an extreme case being Iran's 14 vice presidents. If the president is not present, dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to fulfill their duties, the vice president will generally serve as president. In many

presidential system A presidential, strong-president, or single-executive system (sometimes also congressional system) is a form of government in which a head of government (usually titled " president") heads an executive branch that derives its authority and l ...

s, vice presidents may not wield much day-to-day political power, but are still considered important members of the cabinet, while other vice presidents might not have any purpose beyond acting in place of the president on the event of the president's death, resignation or incapacity. A few vice presidents in the Americas also hold the position of

president of the senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the Speaker (politics), speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's Order of succession, succes ...

; this is the case, for example, in Argentina, the United States, and Uruguay. The vice president sometimes assumes some of the ceremonial duties of the president, such as attending diplomatic functions and events that the actual president may be too busy to attend; the

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...

, for example, often attends funerals of world leaders on behalf of the

. A vice president, in some cases, may also be appointed by the president as the head of a ministry in the cabinet or to lead certain executive initiatives designated by the president. In parliamentary or semi-presidential systems, a vice president may coexist with a prime minister, as is the case in India and

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, but the presence of both offices concurrently is rare.

In business

, "vice president" refers to hierarchical position that ranges from extremely senior positions directly reporting to C-level executives (in non-financial companies), to junior non-management positions with four to 10 years of experience (in financial companies). In non-financial businesses, vice presidents often report directly to the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the company and are members of the executive management team. Some

corporations A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

that use this term may have individuals with the title of vice president responsible for specific business divisions (e.g., vice president for legal, vice president for sales and marketing, vice president for finance, and vice president for human resources). When there are typically several vice presidents in a company, these individuals are sometimes differentiated with titles denoting higher positions such as executive vice president or senior vice president, with the remaining management team holding the title vice president. The title of assistant vice president or associate vice president is used in large organizations below vice president and there can be a very convoluted list of other types of VPs as seen in the next section. As many of these VPs have minimal employees reporting to them, their necessity has been questioned, with for example '' Inc.'' magazine arguing to flatten the corporate hierarchy. Similarly, as universities have adopted a corporate structure there is concern over administrative bloat and over-paying VPs. Benjamin Ginsberg, a political scientist and professor, has claimed the proliferation of VPs and other administrators is destroying universities. "Corporate vice president" is an older term that usually denotes a vice president that is named as a corporate officer by the board of directors. Not all vice presidents in a company in the modern business environment are named as an official corporate officer.

Hierarchy of vice presidents

Depending on the specific organization, the following may be an example of the hierarchy of the vice presidents. The following list explains where the VP sits in an organization: *President *Joint president *Deputy president *First executive vice president (FEVP) *Senior executive vice president (SEVP) *Executive vice president (EVP) *Senior vice president (SVP) *Group vice president (GVP) *Vice president (VP) *Additional vice president (Addl. VP) *Joint vice president (Jt. VP) *Deputy vice president (Deputy VP) *Associate vice president (Asso. VP) *Assistant vice president (Asst. VP) *Chief general manager (CGM) *Senior general manager (SGM) *General manager (GM) *Deputy general manager (DGM) *Assistant general manager (AGM) *Chief manager (CM) *Senior manager (SM) *Manager (M) *Deputy manager (DM) *Assistant manager (AM) This comparison is not strictly correct, as ''director'' is a legal term, meaning someone registered with the relevant country's company registrar (or simply named in the legal documents, for countries not having company registration) as having managerial control of the company, and having legal responsibility for its operation, whilst a vice president does not. In either case the responsibilities may be overall to the company, a region (US, EMEA, CEE...), business unit or function such as sales, marketing, IT etc.

In financial services companies

In financial companies, a "vice president" is usually a seniority rank that denotes higher responsibility, though such may not be leadership. The title does not denote a leadership position within the company, but often a role relatively junior to the executive board. Financial services companies have multiple vice presidents, possibly because the title is a form of

delayering A flat organization (or horizontal organization) is an organizational structure with few levels of management between staff and executives. An organizational structure refers to the nature of the distribution of the units and positions within it, ...

when an employee can not be moved higher in the organization but still deserves recognition. In most cases, the title merely implies that someone is in a medium-seniority individual contributor role. Larger financial institutions have thousands of employees with the title "vice president".

In other organizations

In other organizations (''e.g.'',

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s, societies, clubs) one or multiple vice presidents are elected by the members of the organization. When multiple vice presidents are elected, the positions are usually numbered to prevent confusion as to who may preside or succeed to the office of president upon vacancy of that office (for example: first vice president, second vice president, and so on). In some cases vice presidents are given titles due to their specific responsibilities, for example: vice president of operations, finance, etc. In some associations the first vice president can be interchangeable with executive vice president and the remaining vice presidents are ranked in order of their seniority. Sometimes a vice president is also called ''presidium member'', especially when there are more than person holding the post. The primary responsibility of the vice president of a club or organization is to be prepared to assume the powers and duties of the office of the president in the case of a vacancy in that office. If the office of president becomes vacant, the vice president (or in clubs with multiple vice presidents, the VP that occupies the highest-ranking office), will assume the office of president, with the lower vice presidents to fill in the remaining vice presidencies, leaving the lowest vice presidency to be filled by either election or appointment. If the bylaws of a club specifically provide of the officer title of

president-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Un ...

, that officer would assume the powers and duties of the president upon vacancy of that office only if specified in the bylaws.

References

External links

American Institute of Parliamentarians -- www.aipparl.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vice President Management occupations