Executive Assistant to CEO (Business and personal)
| THE ESSENTIALS Platform: Group Status: Full time, permanent. Salary: TBD Base: London. We typically work 4 days in the office, 1 day from home. Requirement for this role: ideally based in North London, or happy to travel to North London when required). Hours: 37.5 hours per week. Start: ASAP |
THE BENEFITS:
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HSPG: A social impact real estate company
Our mission is simple: Building partnerships, creating homes, developing communities.
There is a critical lack of affordable housing across the UK, affecting the most vulnerable people in our community.
We build long-term partnerships with Local Authorities to acquire and manage demand-driven social and affordable housing across various tenures, as per the image below.
Across HSPG’s Living Sector platforms, we are actively acquiring 2,500 high-quality homes from national housebuilders and developers by the end of 2025. These properties are managed by our experienced team, grouped into portfolios, and funded by our institutional investment partners.
HSPG aims to positively impacts our residents’ lives, while providing long-term, sustainable returns for our investment partners.
Core Behaviours:
Core mission:
Your core mission is to protect the CEO’s time, energy, and focus so he can operate at maximum impact. You will ensure he is always in flow, being flexible with diary changes to accommodate this.
You do this by creating calm from chaos, bringing order to complexity, and ensuring the CEO is always working on the right thing at the right moment.
You anticipate what he needs before he asks, remove friction before it’s felt, and resolve problems before they become visible. You thrive in a rapid-paced, constantly shifting environment where clarity, pace and discretion matter more than anything else. You must create the clarity, it will not always be given to you.
You act as the CEO’s extension: thinking how he thinks, prioritising how he prioritises, and smoothing everything around him so he can deliver on HSPG’s mission with zero distraction.
You operate seamlessly across business and personal domains, maintaining absolute discretion, emotional stability and professional maturity at all times.
You work closely with the EA team, to ensure the CEO is protected, the executive team is aligned, and no detail falls through the cracks.
Obsess: These points get you out of bed in the morning and keep you up at night! If you’re not obsessed with these, the role isn’t for you.
- Organisation: you love turning complexity into clarity.
- Discretion: you treat every detail, conversation, and decision with confidentiality, integrity and respect.
- Solution-obsessed: Finding solutions, not problems, and solving challenges independently.
- Understanding the CEO: how he thinks, works and prioritises focuses.
Excel: You are excellent at these areas: an expert.
- Adaptability: you quickly adjust easily to shifting priorities in an exceptionally fast-paced environment.
- Anticipation: you anticipate the CEO’s needs, foresee issues and absorb pressure.
- Reliable: when you say “I’ve got it” you mean it and we don’t need to check it.
- Curiosity: you think beyond the task and ask the right questions to understand what the CEO needs.
- Ease and flow: the CEO should feel that nothing is too small or big an ask of you and you’re happy to support him entirely.
Specific experience:
- At least 5 years’ experience as EA to a founder of a founder-led business with at least £10m annual turnover.
- Full driving license, and own car.
Outcomes & Metrics: the desired result and how we measure it
| 0-3 | Outcomes: the desired result | Metrics: How we measure it |
Build a deep understanding of the CEO’s priorities, rhythms, preferences, energy patterns and pressure points, and begin adapting support accordingly. |
Within 8–10 weeks, CEO confirms you consistently “get” his priorities and working style (qualitative but clear). Demonstrable improvement in how you pre-empt his needs (measured through weekly check-ins). | |
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Establish full ownership of the CEO’s diary, eliminating conflicts, unnecessary meetings, clashes (ie, allowing for adequate time for potential meetings running over) and low-value activity. |
90–95% diary alignment to CEO’s actual priorities. Zero double-bookings, incorrect holds or preventable clashes. At least three low-value recurring meetings removed, restructured or delegated. |
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Create clarity, calm and flow around the CEO’s work: inbox, tasks, travel, personal admin, reducing cognitive load immediately. |
Noticeable reduction (25%) in CEO needing to chase, remind or re-direct. Faster response management: all diary or priority changes acknowledged same-day; urgent matters within one hour. CEO reports improved mental space and fewer admin interruptions. |
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Build strong working relationships with the EA team, senior leaders and external key contacts, so coordination becomes seamless. |
Positive feedback from COO, EA team and 2+ key external stakeholders on alignment and clarity. All dependencies for diary, travel, docs and briefings run through you without gaps. |
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Support CEO with new proposed organisational schedule, implement it and iterate with him. |
New schedule is implemented, and you support him with assessing effectiveness on a weekly basis. |
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| 3-6 |
Operate as the CEO’s second brain, anticipating his needs, preferences and next moves without being asked. This includes personal and professional needs. |
70%+ of CEO needs predicted before request (tracked in weekly review). Noticeable reduction in CEO context-switching caused by missing prep or unclear priorities. |
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Embed a predictable Executive Rhythm (weekly, monthly, quarterly) that protects CEO focus and reduces reactive time. |
Monthly and quarterly rhythms executed without prompting: meetings booked, prep circulated, follow-ups tracked. CEO reports 30%+ improvement in structure, flow and predictability. |
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Manage business and personal domains seamlessly, resolving issues early and maintaining absolute discretion. |
Zero missed tasks across travel, personal admin, logistics or follow-ups. Issues consistently resolved before they escalate: fewer than 1–2 escalations per month reaching CEO. Strict confidentiality maintained: no breaches, no unnecessary involvement from others. |
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Become the single source of truth for the CEO’s schedule, priorities, commitments and follow-through. |
100% accuracy in diary, travel plans, documents and commitments. |
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| 6-12 |
Fully operate as an extension of the CEO, applying his judgement in filtering, prioritising and decision-support. |
CEO confirms “you think how I think” or “you know what I’d choose” in 80%+ of decisions involving prioritisation. EA filters or delegates 20–30% of inbound requests without CEO input. CEO disruption reduced to minimal levels (only strategic escalations). |
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Drive operational clarity around the CEO, ensuring meetings, prep, documents and follow-ups run with zero friction. |
98%+ accuracy in meeting preparation, materials, travel logistics and follow-through. All CEO meetings have pre-read, objective, and follow-up actions documented and tracked without CEO intervention. CEO time allocation consistently 70%+ strategic, as measured quarterly. |
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Continuously improve systems and processes that increase CEO focus time and reduce operational noise. |
3–5 meaningful process improvements implemented that tangibly reduce CEO time drain (e.g., inbox system, meeting rules, briefing formats). 15–20% reduction in repeated tasks or avoidable rework across the exec team related to CEO workflow. Clear, documented systems used consistently across support functions. |
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Elevate the EA function, ensuring alignment, consistency and professional standards across the leadership support team. |
EA team demonstrates consistent pace, accuracy and proactivity due to your standards and structure. COO/MD/CFO report improved clarity and coordination as a result of EA alignment with other EAs. EA team self-sufficient for day-to-day support; CEO EA becomes escalation point only for high-level issues. |
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