Executive Assistant (President & Executive Vice-President) at African Center for Economic Transformation

Job Summary

Reporting to the Executive Vice-President, the main purpose of the role is to;

• Provide professional secretarial and administrative support, including managing the communication, information, administrative and financial support systems, for the President and Executive Vice-President (EVP)
• Work in close collaboration with other Executive Assistants to ensure robust systems are in place to facilitate effective delivery across the organisation.

Areas of Responsibility

• More specifically, the Executive Assistant shall;

Administration support

• Provide full administrative support to the President and EVP of ACET the including proactive diary management and liaison with key contacts in partner organisations
• Prioritise emails and correspondence (including phone messages) for the President and EVP, dealing with them directly where possible and preparing and following up items that need to be handled by the President and EVP
• Manage “day files” to ensure the President and EVP have all relevant documents needed for briefings and meetings at least 24 hours in advance
• Prepare documents (including letters and slide decks) and other materials for the President and EVP, and distribute to relevant stakeholders in a timely fashion
• Proactively manage and organise – and, where appropriate, take notes of – a variety of meetings as defined by the President or EVP
• Manage the President and EVPs IT needs, business cards, stationary, travel, accommodation and expenses
• Ensure the office of the President and EVP has an effective filing system and key documents can be easily accessed by the rest of the organisation
• Assist with cross-organisation initiatives that require administrative support such as senior leadership team meetings, all staff meetings and annual Away-Days
• Perform other responsibilities as may be required from time to time in order to ensure the smooth running of the President and EVP Office.

Information & communications support

• Ensure the communications team has access to key documents for web and intranet content, web-meetings, teleconferences and regular flows of information
• Ensure the President’s social media accounts are regularly updated and number of followers are increased
• Co-ordinate the planning, running and follow up of key workshops and meetings, conferences and events, supporting the meeting organisers in preparing agendas, papers, minutes and reports
• Provide a timely response to external and internal requests for information.

Qualifications

• The preferred candidate will meet the following criteria;

Essential

• A positive “can do” attitude and someone who is deeply committed to economic transformation in Africa.
• Excellent organisational and administration skills and the ability to plan and prioritise own work without close supervision
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Professional manner and approach to work
• Attention to detail and quality
• Good writing skills with the ability to draft and edit documents letters accurately, produce summaries and compose own documentation
• Experience of organising administrative aspects of meetings, workshops and events with limited support
• Aware of the need for appropriate levels of confidentiality and ability to ensure these levels are maintained
• Self motivated, proactive and flexible; able to make judgements as to when to take the initiative on the President and EVPs behalf
• Eagerness to take on new and complex work and excellent time management skills
• Highly computer literate and confident with Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel
• Good team player
• Ability to work occasionally outside normal hours to meet immediate deadlines or to liaise with people in other time zones.

Desirable

• Broad understanding of the international development system;
• Experience of working effectively within a large and complex organisational structure