> There's hundreds of other engineers that can probably do as good of a job or better than him.

There are 2 parts to the job of CEO:

1. Sales

2. Incentive engineering (overcoming Goodhart's law)

There is very little about software development expertise that will help with either of those endeavors.

> There is very little about software development expertise that will help with either of those endeavors

Good point, we can pay them much less than developers. Having a warm smile and making informed decisions about ~things is something my mom can do and I assure you her hourly wage is less than a developer's.

And the first industrial grade confidence trickster (and when you're managing $500 million you tend to get the cream of the crop going after you) will take her (and her company) for all she's worth. Having seen people who are great at people skills and those who are not there is a world of difference.

There probably are, but that's not the issue when recruiting CEO.

You have to find a person with a relevant experience. That's the real bottleneck. Number of people available who have enough track record to be considered to become CEO in a tech company with half a billion in revenue and over thousand employees is small, those who are willing to work for less pay is really small.

Running a company such as this is like living in a shark tank. Powerful, convincing people are going to lobby you to do what they think you ought to be doing. See the recent privatization of .org for how things can go wrong. You need the right person at the helm with strong convictions.

>There's hundreds of other engineers that can probably do as good of a job or better than him.

Says only someone who hasn't seen what happens when the average IC is forced into management.

IC? (Merriam-webster doesn't come up with anything useful and I only know it as integrated circuit or intercity train)

Individual Contributor. US businesses-speak for "not a manager".

It's corporate-speak: Individual Contributor (aka not management).

Individual Contributor

Won't know until we try =)

than her