preside
v.v. to be in charge of a formal meeting, ceremony, or trial. You use this when someone is the leader of an official event.
v. to exercise formal authority or control over a meeting, ceremony, or legal proceeding. Intransitive — requires a prepositional phrase to specify the event or group being led.
The judge will preside over the trial today.
The committee chair will preside over the annual meeting to ensure all members follow the agenda.
In the absence of the president, the vice president was called upon to preside over the emergency session, maintaining order during a particularly heated debate regarding the new policy.
From Old French presider, from Latin praesidēre (“preside”), from pre- (“before”) + sedere (“to sit”). Displaced Old English foresittan, which might have been a calque of the Latin.
The verb is intransitive and almost always takes the preposition 'over'.
He presided the meetingHe presided over the meetingPreside is intransitive and requires the preposition 'over' before the object.