My form is encoded and I can't read the information

How do I solve this issue?

You must upload the private key file that is provided to you when you enable Encrypt Form Data in your form in order to decrypt the submissions data.

If you lost your private key file, your encrypted data can't be decrypted forever. You must turn off this feature instead or create a new key for the future submissions.

Please read some of the FAQs about Data Encryption here https://www.jotform.com/help/344-Encrypted-Forms-and-How-to-Use-Them

My CEO emailed me the encrypt key, but isn't usable.  Would that make a difference?  

Do you mean the key is not decrypting the data after you upload it in the submissions page? Did your CEO try uploading the key to his/her end? 

If the key is not working, I would suggest disabling the encryption to prevent further losses of the data or duplicate the form and disable the encryption in the duplicate and use it to replace the original form. 

https://www.jotform.com/help/42-How-to-Clone-an-Existing-Form-from-a-URL