Are you sure he’s napping? Might he just have his eyes closed, concentrating? Or is his head lolling and drool trickling? I wouldn’t do anything to call attention to his doze, and only ask for a break if it makes sense in the timing of the presentation.
Was this a Japanese owned company? Was the CEO Japanese?
It’s normal and acceptable for Japanese executives to doze off during parts of meetings which don’t require their attention. I’ve seen this happen many times. The protocol is for everyone to ignore the sleeping exec. An underling has responsibility for following the discussions and will politely wake them if something comes up they need to hear.
I pause to take a sip of coffee while staring at him and place the glass cup back on the table just a little too loud, the guy next to him usually punches him a bit if the cup doesn’t do it. If not, push on through.
I was in a meeting wherein an senior-level person’s head was tipped way back resulting it really loud snoring. I’m talking buzz-saw snoring, the kind where you think “Okay he’s done inhaling…” to find that he’s still got some left.
:: snoooooo… OOORE!::
It was a painfully awkward meeting because no one knew what to do, but the snoozer was very disruptive. At the end of the meeting everyone left quietly and left the guy sleeping there.
Joking aside, unless your presentation is two hours long, don’t do this. By far the most professional way to handle the situation is to act as if everyone in the audience is listening attentively. They’re the customer, they get to not pay attention if they want. You’ll just lose points with those who are awake if you make any transparent attempts to wake the CEO so he’ll listen to you, IMO.