The title director has been used in colonial administrations not only as a bureaucratic rank and for the members of a board of directors, but also specifically, as in this article, for the head of the colonial administration of a territory (e.g. protectorate) under indirect rule by a chartered company, functionally equivalent to a governor. Elsewhere, the same function went by the -in principle higher- title director-general, as in Demerara-Essequibo (Dutch Guyana).
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British colonies
- from 5 June 1885 the Niger Districts Protectorate (under the United African Company) was administered by Sir George Goldie (b. 1846 - d. 1925), till it became on 10 July 1886 the Niger River Delta Protectorate (under the Royal Niger Company, which appointed two consecutive Governors, the second being the same Sir George Goldie).
- the short-lived (1613 - 1623) English trading post at Hirado (Japan) had a single Director: Richard Cocks
Other colonial powers
Director, or rather its equivalent in the colonisator's language, was similarly used elsewhere:
- Directeur, in Caribbean possessions under Dutch WIC (West India Company) administration:
- Aruba 1833 - 1848 only three incuments, the first having been the last Commandeur, the last becoming the first gezaghebber
- Curaçao 1634 - 1792 and once more 1828 - 1833 (Isaäk Johannes Rammelman Elsevier), at other times various other titles were in use, mostly Governor
- Directeur of Dutch Bengal (a few factories in Dutch India), from 1635 (till 1655 however filled by the governors of Coromandel) till the 1795 annexed to British India
