When you are the CEO, you are both empowered and bound. Empowered to take risks, because the buck stops with you, but bound by the outcomes because there is no

When you are the CEO, you are both empowered and bound. Empowered to take risks, because the buck stops with you, but bound by the outcomes because there is nobody else to blame. So yes he took a risk. This was one of many. If it didn't pay off, he could take others.