Chief technical officer about to come to grief, nearly (5,2)
I believe the answer is:
close to
'nearly' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'chief technical officer about to come to grief' is the wordplay.
'chief' indicates taking the first letters.
'about' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'to come to grief' becomes 'close' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letters of 'technical officer' is 'to'.
'to' after 'close' is 'CLOSE TO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for close to that I've seen before include "Nearly" , "'Nearby (5,2)'" , "near" .)