What is chief executive?

Famous quotes containing the words chief and/or executive:

“Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

“When you give power to an executive you do not know who will be filling that position when the time of crisis comes.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)