Cortese was a trader and held many other roles a few banks before coming to Southampton, he became an exceptional CEO for them, what he did at Southampton was utterly brilliant. A lot was made of Les Reed's work but that all went to shit the moment Cortese left (sure the change of ownership going first to the daughter and then Chinese and I'm not close enough to truly evaluate other than have a helicopter view of it all, but things went to shit the second Cortese wasn't back by the board).
There is no chosen path that makes a good CEO, most traders I know were simply lucky bastards who happened to be at the right place at the right time, earnt a stack of money and retired in their late 30yrs to pursue a passion be that running a bar, florists or a Bakery. It didn't matter if these businesses made money or not, they had a property portfolio earning them £400k per year! I merely talking about two very different men who have an aptitude for both business (successful) and football and I like the cut of their jibs.