Chief is after mean man who’s paid pennies for position in front row (5-4,4)

'chief is' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'mean man who's paid pennies for position in front row' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'mean' could be 'tight' (both can mean miserly) and 'tight' is found in the answer.
'man' could be 'ad' and 'ad' is found in the answer.
'paid' could be 'pro' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'pro' is located in the answer.
'pennies' could be 'p' (abbreviation for pence) and 'p' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'he' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'after' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?