CEOs of small companies don't make $400k.

CEOs that have run a successful business before might make $250k-$300k in Silicon Valley (a high salary area, to be sure).

$250k would probably be the high end for a CEO of a 30 person company, if the CEO had not had a major success before.

This isn't the first time I've said this, but "CEO" sounds like a pretentious title for the head of a <= 30 person company.

Sure, but what would you suggest we call the guy who is in charge of a 30-person company, then?

"President" used to be the standard for smaller firms. (Used to be the standard for all firms, actually, until "CEO" was invented.)

Here in England, it's called a Director.

In the US a "director" is anyone on the board of directors.

That's true for UK companies too - there can be (and often are) multiple directors. In fact, unless there were a lot of founders, I'd expect all of them to be directors, at least initially.

England has "managing director" for the CEO.

General Manager

I think you missed the humor.

I apologize.

My take was that the job of running a 30 person company was being equated with running Enron. Actually, someone who can successfully run a 30 person company is worth more.