The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Jan. 2, edition that for a growing number of corporate leaders, chief executive officer is not the last rung on the management ladder any more. The Globe's Tim Kiladze writes that instead, more CEOs announce they are retiring or "stepping down" to become executive chairs, taking on ill-defined roles that permit them to continue overseeing strategy, and sometimes day-to-day operations, even though a new CEO has been appointed. The trend is playing out at institutions of all stripes, from publicly traded companies, to law firms, to private corporations, and it is altering succession plans at every size of enterprise imaginable, from mid-sized businesses to giant corporations. In Canada, executive chairs have been named at oil sands producer Cenovus Energy, corporate law firm Bennett Jones and office building owner Allied Properties REIT. They've also been appointed at parcel giant Cargojet, meat and protein producer Maple Leaf Foods, and private real estate developer KingSett Capital, among others. How the position became so popular is a mystery. Executive chair can mean a lot of things, so it is relatively easy for companies to justify the position.