Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
In the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone it says:
Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.
Since I'm not British, I'm not sure of the American business equivalent. What does that mean? Is director like the CEO, COO, Chairman of the Board?
A "company director" has a specific legal meaning in the UK. The company directors are responsible for day-to-day operations and answer directly to the owners or shareholders. They have certain responsibilities under the law -- for example, they are required to ensure that the company's financial records are correct. (See https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company.)
In the USA such a person would be a "member of the board of directors". A small business might have only one company director.
This is distinct from the titles used within a company. In a large corporation, employees well below the "board of directors" level might be called a "director" of something (marketing, research, paper clips, whatever), but that title has no particular legal standing.
Vernon Dursley is described as the director of Grunnings, not merely a director, which implies that he is the only one. So Grunnings would be a small to medium-sized business with Vernon at the top. This may be a subtle hint by JK Rowling that Vernon is used to being in charge, which explains his rather arrogant personality and makes it more amusing when wizards are completely unimpressed by his attempts to boss them around.
In the UK, the director of a business is basically in charge. It's similar to CEO in the USA.
Note the use of "the", which implies a singular, versus an "a", which would imply multiple directors.
It's also a legal thing, I am joint director (with my Wife) of my own company, our company has 2 employees (me and my Wife!). Under UK law, when you set up a business (Public Limited Company - PLC) you need to declare at least 1 person as a director and 1 as company secretary. Under the law they then have certain responsibilities (such as filing tax returns etc.).
However, when a larger company is involved (such as Grunnings), although we have no idea how large it is, the term 'director' may not mean director in a legal sense. I suspect that in this case it simply denotes that he's higher up the managerial chain than some.
In the United States, however, the term director is typically used to describe a senior middle-level manager, just short of "managing director".
Other terms that can also mean similar things are: Manager, CEO, MD (Managing Director) etc.
