Senior Financial Execs Favor Separate CEO, Chairman

Eighty-eight percent of senior financial executives believe the positions of CEO and chairman of the board should be separate, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton.

More than half, or 52 percent, of the 846 U.S. CFOs and senior comptrollers surveyed report that they would like to be CEO of a company one day.

Sixty-three percent of the senior financial executives surveyed believe that the average CEO is overpaid. However, 59 percent believe that their own CEO is appropriately paid.

Eighty-four percent of the executives do not believe that it is the auditor’s responsibility to detect any and all fraud, while 72 percent believe it is reasonably possible for a CFO to intentionally and materially misstate a company’s financial statements without being detected in a timely manner by internal or external auditors.

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