[dragonwriter]

> "executive director" at many companies means "director who will never get promoted to VP".

That's somewhat obnoxious, because "executive director" has a fairly well-established general definition that is equivalent to "CEO".

> Also, if they worked at a bank, "vice president" means nothing. Nearly everyone working at a bank is a vice president

...and if they worked at a B2B software company for which banks are a major set of customers, almost the same thing happens, because the customers think "if you aren't at least a VP, you aren't anybody."

[Sniperfish]

In Canada it's not uncommon to see the seniority of Director and VP reversed (Director being the more senior)