***LOCAL CANDIDATES ONLY

Role Overview

Supporting private principals requires much more than managing calendars or responding to email. The Executive Assistant creates the structure, organization, and continuity that allow the principals to focus on the decisions, relationships, and responsibilities where their time is most valuable.

The successful candidate will understand the full operating environment around the principals, anticipate needs, coordinate across professional and personal matters, and keep priorities moving without requiring constant direction. This is a high-trust, high-judgment role requiring discretion, responsiveness, exceptional organization, and complete follow-through.

Core Responsibilities

1. Executive Communication and Information Flow

Create and maintain a clear, reliable communication system around the principals. Organize information according to urgency, importance, timing, and the level of executive involvement required.

• Maintain a current, organized list of all outstanding matters requiring executive attention.
• Document important communications, decisions, deadlines, commitments, and follow-up items.
• Prioritize matters by urgency, impact, and timing, and track them through resolution.
• Consolidate information into concise summaries and recommendations rather than forwarding unnecessary detail.
• Maintain clear visibility into what is complete, pending, delegated, or awaiting a principal decision.
• Prepare prioritized briefings after periods of limited communication or whenever the principals reconnect with the team.

Executive Briefing Framework

Immediate Attention	Schedule for Discussion	Information Only
Time-sensitive decisions; approaching deadlines; same-day action; significant consequences if delayed.	Strategic questions; review or approval items; decisions requiring thought or conversation.	Updates; completed items; routine information; matters not requiring executive involvement.

2. Strategic Calendar and Schedule Management

• Manage all professional and personal calendar commitments with a clear understanding of each meeting’s purpose and priority; prepare the principals for the day ahead and identify likely issues in advance.
• Protect time for preparation, travel, family, personal commitments, and focused work.
• Anticipate conflicts; build realistic preparation, transition, and travel time into the schedule; and reorganize quickly when priorities change.
• Confirm appointments and ensure participants have accurate information and necessary materials.

3. Email and Written Communication

• Monitor and organize email and other inbound communications.
• Identify high-priority communications and matters requiring executive response.
• Draft professional responses when appropriate and prepare concise summaries of lengthy correspondence.
• Track unanswered and pending communications and follow up on behalf of the principals when authorized.
• Capture commitments made by email in the appropriate calendar, task, or tracking system.
• Distinguish between information the principals must see, matters that can be handled independently, and items that only require tracking.

4. Meeting Preparation and Executive Briefings

• Ensure the principals are prepared before important meetings by assembling the meeting objective, participants’ backgrounds, relevant history, key documents, talking points, required decisions, outstanding issues, and recommended next steps.
• Include relevant financial or operational information where appropriate.
• Document decisions, commitments, owners, deadlines, and next steps following meetings.
• Track resulting actions through completion and confirm that the appropriate parties are informed.

5. Travel and Logistics

• Proactively coordinate flights, accommodations, ground transportation, meetings, reservations, and family logistics.
• Maintain travel documentation, detailed itineraries, preparation requirements, and contingency plans.
• Manage changes and cancellations promptly, and provide a single, up-to-date source for all travel information.

6. Family and Household Coordination

• Work closely with the family’s Personal Assistant to maintain visibility into school calendars, children’s activities, appointments, travel, important family events, childcare coverage, and household commitments.
• Identify conflicts between family and professional obligations before they become urgent.
• Ensure family and household information is communicated accurately and reflected appropriately on the principals’ calendars.

7. Oversight of the Personal Assistant

• Establish a clear communication, coordination, and reporting structure with the Personal Assistant.
• Receive an accurate operating picture of family and household matters from the Personal Assistant.
• Integrate that information into the broader executive picture and surface material conflicts, decisions, and risks.
• Serve as the organizational bridge so the principals do not need to coordinate multiple support people independently.

8. Executive Buffer, Gatekeeping, and Escalation

• Determine who needs access to the principals and what requires their attention.
• Decide what can be handled independently, delegated, scheduled, deferred, or escalated immediately.
• Communicate confidently and professionally with executives, employees, vendors, family staff, service providers, business partners, and other stakeholders on behalf of the principals.
• When principals are not immediately reachable, assess urgency and consequences, use appropriate communication channels, coordinate with trusted team members, and clearly state why attention is required and by when.

9. Ownership and Follow-Through

The standard for this role is complete ownership. Sending an email, scheduling a meeting, or delegating a task is not completion. Completion means the desired outcome has been achieved, the open loop is closed, and the appropriate people have been informed.

• Clarify the desired outcome, next action, responsible owner, deadline, and potential obstacles.
• Actively track open loops until they are closed.
• Confirm completion and communicate status without requiring repeated direction from the principals.

10. Adaptability and Real-Time Problem Solving

• Reorganize schedules and plans quickly when priorities shift.
• Anticipate conflicts, identify alternatives, and solve problems before they reach the principals where possible.
• Manage last-minute travel and logistical changes calmly and resourcefully.
• Communicate changes clearly while maintaining organization and forward momentum.

Operating Perspective

The Executive Assistant should maintain a working understanding of the entire environment around the principals: business and household activity, family calendars, travel, meetings, major projects, important relationships, deadlines, and outstanding decisions.

The Executive Assistant does not need to perform every task personally. The role ensures that each important matter has an owner, information reaches the right person, and priorities continue moving forward. The principals should be able to step away from the details and trust that those details are being managed.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Significant experience providing high-level executive support to a CEO, founder, private principal, or similarly demanding executive.
• Demonstrated judgment in prioritizing communications, managing access, and deciding what requires executive attention.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, including the ability to prepare concise briefings, summaries, and recommendations.
• Experience managing complex professional and personal calendars, travel, and rapidly changing priorities.
• Strong ownership, systems thinking, organization, and follow-through across multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to supervise and coordinate effectively with a Personal Assistant and other members of a broader support team.
• Calm, discreet, resourceful, and solution-oriented under pressure.
• Comfort operating onsite in Ojai and maintaining close working proximity to the principals.

Purpose of the Role

To give the principals the space to focus on the things only they can do: lead, create, make decisions, build relationships, parent, and think strategically.

Email your resume to colonialagency@gmail.com