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Despite popular anecdotal examples that link the personal values, beliefs, or characteristics of business leaders to the socially responsible nature of their companies, very little is actually known empirically about the relationship between the orientation of managers and their companies’ corporate social strategy. This empirical research study is designed to fill this important gap. We argue that managers’ openness to CSR affects the selective perception, interpretation, and therefore choice of a firm’s CSR strategy. Partial least squares regression is then used to test the CEO effect on CSR, using SmartPLS software with a sample of 151 companies engaged in CSR. This paper thus makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to research in the strategic leadership and CSR domains.