What is a company director?

Definition of company director

A company director is a person who is registered at Companies House as the director of a limited company. To be registered at Companies House makes a director a member of the Board of Directors. If a company has only one director then the Board of Directors has only one member.

Other individuals may have the job title of "director" but this does not make them members of the Board of Directors.

All limited companies in the UK must have at least one director and company directors cannot be aged under 16.

A director (or, if there is more than one, the Board of Directors) is legally responsible for running the company. They also have other legal duties such as to file the accounts on time, safeguard the company's assets, and not to carry on trading if the company cannot pay its debts.

In small limited companies, the director or directors will typically also own all the shares in the company, in other words they will be shareholders as well as directors.

If directors are found guilty of wrongdoing they can be fined, imprisoned, made liable to pay the company's debts themselves, or disqualified from being a company director for a number of years.