The Chief Executive Panel is a political entity jointly owned and run by the Caldari megacorporations. The CEOs of the mega corporations sit on the board of the Panel and make sure the mega corporations don't go overboard in competing with each other, smoothing over potential conflicts before they escalate out of control. The Panel also handles the foreign policy of the Caldari State. It is the closest thing to a Caldari government as there ever will be.
The Chief Executive Panel is the main bureaucratic apparatus through which the Caldari megacorporations rule the State. The Panel's primary purposes are to determine the budgets for the State's few government agencies, such as the Caldari Navy and the Caldari Business Tribunal, and to act as a way for the State's corporate powers to coordinate national policy, such as foreign relations, customs and trade regulations, and inter-corporate business laws.
The Panel itself consists of the major megacorporate CEOs and a non-partisan director. In reality, the CEOs usually send a delegation of trusted executives, corporate lawyers, or board members to represent the corporation's interests on the Panel, and the director is nothing more than a figurehead, a pawn of the most influential political bloc at the time.