In the executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a group of ministers or secretaries who lead executive departments.
The prime minister of India (Indira Gandhi) and the president of the United States (Richard Nixon) in 1971
President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and President Christina Kirchner of Argentina in 2015.
The heads of government of five members of the Commonwealth of Nations at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. From left to right, Mackenzie King (Canada), Jan Smuts (South Africa), Winston Churchill (United Kingdom), Peter Fraser (New Zealand), and John Curtin (Australia).
Image: Olaf Scholz in 2023 (cropped)
The executive, also referred to as the executive branch or executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which executes the law.
Vanhanen II Cabinet in a session of Finnish Parliament in 2007.