No, it isn't - it's an asset owned by the company and shareholders - a CEO is an appointed or elected officer.

> To be clear, I’m referring much more to CEO/owners

Owners are what you are talking about. CEO / Owners are Owners and can act like owners.

That said, even owners need to be herded like cats when they are making bad decisions that impact tens of thousands of people on the basis of hubris and feels.

Somebody has to toss them shiny keys until the moment passes and they can make rational choices again.

The question isn’t whether they want it is whether they have a business need, as with any employee.

The CEO of vocal cola has no business need to know the secret formula. Giving it to him has no upside only downside, so you don’t.

So who gets the formula? A chemist with no vested interest? I have no clue why a CEO would be untrustworthy when any other employer wouldn’t be.

Whoever needs to to do their job. And you put in security controls (e.g. part A and part B). Also compensate your people well and don’t publicize who they are.

Semiconductor does this all the time…engineers on team A know only about their process critical gate materials step. Engineers on team B know about their lithography step. They are trained not to disclose and people respect that.