French term (edited): Chargé d’Affaires (in this context)

I agree with Hooksett416, it depends on the company or organization.
It is a term in itself

French term (edited): Chargé d’Affaires (in this context)

have to know what he was exactly in charge of.

French term (edited): Chargé d’Affaires (in this context)

I have been one.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2009-09-26 08:16:09 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_development

Always a pain, this one. There MUST be ample previous discussion of it here too: I seem to remember contributing to at least one prior debate.

Whenever I've asked customers what the role of a chargé d'affaires is, they've been at a loss for words, and it appears to me that in many cases it is a title they give to someone they wish to keep on the payroll until a particular position lined up for him becomes vacant, or for some reason .

Reasons might include being the lover/mistress of the PDG or a member of his/her family, having information about fraudulent company activities that would be divulged to the authorities if the person were to be given the boot, etc.

Note that they never actually state what sort of affaires the person is in charge of, which is suspicious to say the least.

Anyway, whenever customers have been at a loss for words, they've generally come up with "project manager" as what they feel the title should be in English. Again, no mention of the particular project involved.

These people are often the modern-day, corporate equivalent of the remittance man of colonial times, someone who had done something disgraceful or was required to be kept out of the way for some other reason, but whom the family (aristocratic) could not bring themselves to disown (the shame!) and so was sent to the far-flung colony, there to live a life of luxury at the family's expense on the condition that the never again set foot in Blighty.

The chargé d'affaires roams the world, purportedly defening the Company's business interests, and usually at a salary totally disproportionate to the value of the work he does.