A corporation is typically owned and controlled by its members. In a joint-stock company, the members are known as shareholders and their share in the ownership, control, and profits of the corporation is determined by their portion of shares. Thus, a person who owns a quarter of the shares of a joint-stock company owns a quarter of the company, is entitled to a quarter of the profit (or at least a quarter of the profit given to shareholders as dividends), and has a quarter of the votes that may be cast at general meetings.
In some corporations, the legal document establishing the corporation or containing its rules determines the corporation's membership. Membership in this case depends on the corporation type. For instance, in a worker cooperative, people who work for the cooperative are members, while in a credit union, people who have credit union accounts are members.
The day-to-day activities of a corporation are typically controlled by individuals appointed by the members. In some cases, this will be a single individua,l but more commonly, corporations are controlled by a committee or by committees. Broadly speaking, two kinds of committee structures exist.
A single committee or board of directors is the method favored in most common law countries. The board of directors is composed of both executive and non-executive directors. The latter are responsible for supervising the formers' management of the company.
A two-tiered committee structure with a supervisory board and a managing board is common in civil law countries. Under this model, the executive directors sit on one committee while the non-executive directors sit on the other.
A Famous Investor
Warren Buffet is perhaps the world's most famous investor. He owns many companies through his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway.