[General] Is it correct to say a company is 'Chairman' of a professional association?

[Olympian]

Hello,

The context here is that of a professional association consisting of companies, or that of a consortium. If a particular company heads that association, is it correct to say that that company (say, Company A) is the 'Chairman' of that association, and another company (say, Company B) is the 'Vice-Chairman' of that association? I mean, actually an employee of Company A (and not the company) is elected to head the association, to be more accurate, right? That is why I am confused about how to convey this information.

Thank you

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

No. A chairman, chairwoman, chair, or chairperson is always a person, an individual. If there are more than one person chairing, they're called co-chairs.

You might call a corporation with subsidiaries a holding company, a corporate umbrella, or a parent company.

In a professional association, you might call the group that heads it the convenor.

 

[Olympian]

No. A chairman, chairwoman, chair, or chairperson is always a person, an individual. If there are more than one person chairing, they're called co-chairs.

You might call a corporation with subsidiaries a holding company, a corporate umbrella, or a parent company.

In a professional association, you might call the group that heads it the convenor.

Thank you for the clarification. I have two more questions related to this:

1. If 'Convener' can be thought of as 'Chairman', which word would be the equivalent of 'Vice-Chairman' -
a. Assistant Convener
b. Vice Convener (or Vice-Convener)

2. If the word 'Head' (or Head of the Association) is used instead of 'Convener', which word would be suitable for the assistant/vice position? Does 'Assistant Head of the Association' sound very strange?

Thank you for your help.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I have never heard "Assistant Convener" or "Vice Convener" or "Assistant Head".

 

[Olympian]

I am lost here. I was attempting to help someone proofread their English translation. Apparently in the original language (Chinese) they have a word for it where it is quite 'natural' for them to say that a company is the 'Head' and 'Assistant Head' of an organization. They had translated it as 'Chairman' and 'Vice Chairman'. Since this did not sound ok to me, I posted the question here. I am not able to suggest a replacement for these.

I looked up examples of professional associations/organizations such as standards committees for things like Bluetooth Standards Committee or Bluetooth Special Interest Group. There they use words like 'promoter member' in the following way: "Each Promoter member has one seat (and one vote) on the Board of Directors and the Qualification Review Board (the body responsible for developing and maintaining the qualification process)." But I did not find anything about who is heading the group and about the 'assistant' position.

How about 'In-charge' and 'assistant in-charge'? Would that make some sense in this context?


BTW, I found an occurrence of 'Assistant Convener' here:
http://govolunteer.com.au/Opportuni...er---speech--drama-and-communication-section?

Thank you

 

[emsr2d2]

In BrE, "Head" and "Assistant Head" refer to the headmaster/headmistress and their assistants in a school.