What is the relationship between shareholders and directors of a company? Can a person with shares be a director? Do people with shares have to be directors?

Shareholders are shareholders of a joint stock limited company or a limited liability company, and have the right to attend the shareholders' meeting and have the right to vote. They also refer to investors in other joint ventures.

A director, also known as an executive director, refers to a person who is elected by the company's shareholders' meeting and has the actual power and authority to manage the company's affairs. They are the main force of the company's internal governance, managing the company's affairs internally and conducting economic activities on behalf of the company externally. A director may be a natural person or a legal person.

The difference between shareholders and directors:

1. Shareholders can be shareholders as long as they participate in the profit sales of the company, while the directors of a joint stock limited company are elected by the shareholders' meeting, and can be held by shareholders or non-shareholders.

2. Different powers, the shareholders' meeting (limited liability company) or shareholders' meeting (joint stock limited company) is the authority of the company, and its constituent shareholders are the investors of the company, that is, the company is established and maintained with their money. Shareholders' meeting or shareholders' meeting is a non-permanent institution, and usually it is held once a year. Of course, the company's articles of association can freely specify the time or convene an interim meeting, but there must be a legal convener and statutory and agreed reasons.