honcho
/ˈhɒn(t)ʃəʊ
/North American informal
noun (plural honchos)
A leader or manager; the person in charge: the company’s head honcho in the US...
- The coalition now includes some of the country's heaviest financial hitters, pension fund managers and mutual fund honchos that control a half-trillion in assets.
- It is no small irony that Iranian ayatollahs, ex-Communist Party leaders and former KGB honchos will vastly increase their influence in the region.
- What do all of these people - the Baseball owners, the music-industry honchos, the airline kings, and the President, have in common?
verb (honchoes, honchoing, honchoed) [with object]
Be in charge of (a project or situation): what else could be expected from a review honchoed by him?...
- After praising him, the President last week removed him from honchoing the hurricane relief operation.
- Our most junior producer, who had put together the noon show and was at the gym at the time, came back into work and helped honcho the overnight show.
- As the project leader and principal investigator, it was one of my responsibilities to honcho the selection of a name.
Origin
1940s: from Japanese hanchō 'group leader', a term brought back to the US by servicemen stationed in Japan during the occupation following the Second World War.