interim leader
Acting head temporarily
An interim leader is someone who temporarily holds a leadership position until a permanent replacement is chosen.
The term appears most often in politics, where a party names an interim leader after an election loss or resignation: She served as interim leader while the party held its leadership convention.
In business contexts, interim CEO or interim director fills the same function.
- actingTemporarily holding position
- caretakerOne who maintains property
- temporaryLimited in duration
- lame duckOfficeholder serving final term
- placeholderTemporary position marker
stopgap · transitional · changing of the guard · successor · appointed · fill-in · stand-in · holding the fort · proxy · regent · substitute · steward · custodian · behind the scenes · handover · stepping down · vacancy · power vacuum
- temporary rolestemp, temp worker, internship, substitute, substitute teaching
- family businessfamily business, family enterprise, family ownership, succession plan, succession planning
- power shiftsregime change, coup d'etat, overthrow, abdication, inauguration
- successionheir apparent, heir presumptive, line of succession, primogeniture, successor
- temporary rulersregent, acting president, queen regent
- provisional governmentsprovisional government, caretaker government, acting president, government in exile, military junta