chair, chairman, chairwoman, chairperson

Chair is an academic title and refers to a person’s position. Capitalize as a formal title before a name (Chair John Smith) but not when the title comes after the name as a parenthetical (John Smith, chair of the finance committee). Lowercase as a casual description: The chair of the finance committee reports to the full board. Note the use of the gender-neutral “chair” rather than one of the other options.