What is the C-suite?

December 17, 2023 The C-suite: the most influential group of people ever to be referred to by their block of offices. The C-suite comprises a company’s leaders, almost always including a CEO and CFO. Other leaders in a C-suite depend on the nature of the company’s business. A sales company, for example, is likely to have a chief revenue officer; a public-facing tech business, on the other hand, is sure to have a chief technology officer. In our first Explainers collection, we dive deep into the C-suite, breaking down the most common leadership roles and how they work together. What’s the most exciting thing about today’s C-suite? The fact that it’s changing. Companies’ top brass are becoming more inclusive of diverse voices—and hence, more effective. “Two-thirds of women under 30 want to be senior leaders,” says McKinsey senior partner Alexis Krivkovich. “That’s incredibly exciting because today, only one in four members of the C-suite are women. And yet women under 30 look up and say, ‘I want to be there at the top.’”