Executive chairmen are having a moment

Why it matters: Executive chair positions seem to be getting increasingly popular, despite the fact that they're a terrible idea from a corporate-governance perspective and often make the CEO's job barely tenable.

Between the lines: Ken Jacobs, the former chairman and CEO of Lazard, is now the investment bank's executive chairman. The new CEO is Peter Orszag, but Jacobs will not report to him, per Bill Cohan at Puck:

• "Now Jacobs is in quite an unusual position: He’ll be akin to a newly hired star banker, focusing entirely on clients, while also being the executive chairman of the board, to which the new CEO also reports, while not reporting to the new CEO."

The bottom line: Invariably, the executive chair is the person who's really in charge. You might almost say that person is the top executive at the company. If only there were a common title reflecting such a position.