Personal Assistant to CEO, London

This role provides comprehensive support to the CEO of an expert management consulting and data services company, dedicated to healthcare. The role is focussed on organsing the CEO to meet her professional and personal commitments, assisting her in the management of requirements across her whole life – as CEO of a growing company, as a mum to 3 young people and 2 step-children and as a woman who also needs to take time for herself. 

Carnall Farrar (CF) is a growing company. CF works across all aspects of the healthcare sector from supporting the NHS to serving major life science companies. We are passionate about, and experts in, healthcare.  

Hannah Farrar is a co-founder, shareholder and the CEO of CF. She also sits on the Board of the Management Consulting Association (the MCA), which is the sector’s trade association and is a non-executive director at Lantum, a health technology company focused on workforce solutions. She is a visiting professor at Imperial College London and each year she teaches on the adoption of innovations to a range of health masters programmes. Her career began as a fast-stream civil servant in the Department of Health, prior to founding CF, she held a senior role in the NHS. 

Beyond CF, Hannah is a mother to three children aged 18, 14 and 7 and step-mother to two more aged 17 and 14. She values her time with her family and with so many people in the household it needs a significant amount of organisation. Taking care of herself is also critical to enabling Hannah to perform at her best, whether that is healthy eating, adequate rest, exercise, maintaining her beauty regime or making time to socialise. 

To operate at her best, a well organised and smooth running schedule is vital. As is taking on as much of her load as is feasible such that Hannah can focus on the things that only she can do. 

Role summary 

The Personal Assistant to the CEO is a role which takes responsibility for the meticulous diary management and pro-active organisation the CEO’s time, making arrangements and appointments for life to run as smoothly as possible. The candidate must be able to carefully manage and organise a large volume of competing deadlines, and thrive in a fast-paced environment. 

The PA to the CEO needs to deeply understand and support the CEO’s professional goals, to achieve an appropriate balance of time between corporate, client and business development requirements. It also requires providing excellent private support to the CEO’s personal requests for work-related and personal life tasks. Working to the Head of CEO Office, you will become a trusted partner to the CEO, and integral to the operation of the business.

As well as adhering to the CF values and associated behaviors (see Annex 1), particularly behavioral attributes, including being unfazed by changing priorities, accepting there is always a to-do list and a straightforward and straight-talking approach when engaging with Hannah. When working with colleagues in CF, clients, suppliers and people seeking to engage CF, kindness, diplomacy and professionalism are essential qualities. 

You will be joining a very collaborative, friendly and inclusive team, while being managed by the Head of the CEO office.  

The requirements, responsibilities and duties of the role will include, but are not limited to:

Proactive diary planning and management

·       Manage and maintain the CEO’s schedules and appointments, sometimes across time zones, setting them out in personal (google) and professional (outlook) calendars

·       Support the Head of CEO Office to ensure the CEO’s time is used effectively between corporate, client and business development requirements

·       Maintain a log of business development relationship meetings, update CMAP and keep the BD team regularly updated

·       Proactively prepare and plan for the CEO's client relationship meetings and follow up on actions and subsequent commitments/next steps

·       Act with agility on changing priorities, and manage any impacted individuals with care

·       Forge trusted relations with the EAs and wider offices of key clients such that CF is seen as a good company to work with

·       Meticulous planning of travel arrangements, making it smooth with easy-to-follow instructions (particularly when going to new locations)

·       Maintain the family calendar (google calendar) scheduling appointments for Hannah’s children and carry these over to Hannah’s personal calendar

Organisation and preparation of meetings and events

·       Work with the Head of CEO office, to prepare meeting papers, attend and take minutes where necessary 

·       Work closely with the business development teams to support core business development opportunities

·       Event management and coordination, both personal and professional including alumni events, client dinners and children’s birthday parties

·       Source appropriate venues and make reservations, for work and personal requirements

Support to CEO duties

·       Support the CEO to celebrate milestones and craft celebration emails, cards and gifts

·       Support the CEO meeting her corporate policy obligations by the ensuring appropriate time is set aside to deliver on them such as completing mid-year and end of year processes

Personal support

·       Meet guests and take care of their needs

·       Provide lunch and refreshments for the CEO and the senior team when required

·       Run any ad-hoc errands and make purchases on the CEO’s behalf

Budget and expense management 

·       Support the CEO to manage her budget through planning

·       Manage purchases, invoices and expenses ensuring they are coded to the appropriate budget

Mandatory: 

·       Educated to degree level or with equivalent experience

·       Previous experience in professional services environment within an executive assistant capacity

·       Experience supporting at c-suite level with personal work 

·       Exceptional diary management and organisational skills  

·       Ability to work in a fast paced and quickly changing environment

·       Ability to prioritise workload and work quickly to tight deadlines

·       Proactive, flexible, organised and able to problem solve

·       Polite, direct and a positive ‘can-do’ attitude

·       Empathetic and understanding of workload pressures and able to distinguish between personal and professional 

·       Interest in healthcare and making a social impact 

·       Strong verbal and written communication skills 

·       Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Suite including Outlook

Desired: 

·       Previous experience of supporting leaders at Partner or CEO level   

Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to building an inclusive and supportive culture where diversity thrives, and all our people can excel. We only recruit, promote and reward our people based on their skills and contribution, without regard to gender, race, disability, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or other characteristics.

We are Disability Confident Accredited, and we want you to feel comfortable and able to perform at your best in the recruitment process, if you require any reasonable adjustments for any part of the recruitment process, please let us know.

Flexible Working 

We operate a hybrid-working policy; corporate team members need to be physically together for a minimum of 4 days a week between core office hours of 10am-4pm. Travel to other CF offices in the UK may be required as and when established.
In addition, for up to four weeks a year each member of staff can work entirely virtually.

• Holiday entitlement: 25 days/year for staff and 30 days/ year for leadership, increasing by 1 day for every year of service up to a maximum of 35 days of holiday per year
• We contribute 7% of your salary into your pension, while you contribute 3% (or more if you like)
• Access to a flexible benefits programme giving you the chance to increase pension contributions, gain access to a cash plan or benefit from a ClassPass subscription
• Annual leave purchase: employees with less than 35 days annual leave entitlement are able to purchase additional annual leave days
• Income protection: in the event of long-term incapacity and a qualifying claim, 75% of salary will be paid
• Enhanced sick pay benefit beyond Statutory Sick Pay for up to a total 12 weeks in any 12-month period
• Life insurance covering four times your basic salary in a tax-free lump sum payable to your beneficiaries in the event of your death whilst in service
• Enhanced family leave policies: additional pay for parents who have a baby or adopt
• Access to an interest free loan of up to £10,000
• Access to an interest-free season ticket loan, repayable by 12 monthly instalments
•  Workplace nursery scheme: access to a scheme to help working parents save tax and NI on the cost of the nursery care
•  Flexible working policy: including the ability to work fully remotely for up to 4 weeks a year
•  An employee assistance and wellness Program: including access to telephone counselling, life coaching, interactive tools online and digital content downloadable from Lifeworks
•  Seasonal flu jabs: provided by Boots annually
•  Eye care tests: vouchers and discounts at Vision Express
•  Ride to work scheme, saving up to 42% on bikes and cycling accessories at Evans Cycles
• Membership to the Health Service Journal (HSJ)