It's also the fact that CEOs embody and represent the entire organisation in a way that individual contributors and even mid-level managers do not. This is a p

It's also the fact that CEOs embody and represent the entire organisation in a way that individual contributors and even mid-level managers do not. This is a part of the job, alongside the big salaries and the yacht parties. Consider how people's opinions on Mark Zuckerberg colour their opinions on Facebook, or how often Satya Nadella is referenced in conversations on Microsoft's corporate culture and how it may or may not have changed (and how the previous culture is often literally referred to as the "Ballmer era").