Virtual Executive Assistant
A seasoned assistant, retained to one principal, holding the diary, the board calendar, the travel and the correspondence — with the judgement to decide most of it without asking.
What A Principal Hands Over
Executive Diary Management
A diary held rather than booked: travel time, preparation time, recovery time, and the discipline to protect the two hours a week you say you need and never take.
Board & Meeting Preparation
Papers gathered, chased and circulated to the deadline, a one-page brief before each meeting, and the actions written up and followed the same day.
Travel & Itineraries
Flights, cars, hotels and the schedule between them, arranged to your habits and re-arranged without drama when a meeting moves.
Inbox & Gatekeeping
Correspondence triaged and answered inside agreed limits, introductions filtered, and a short list each day of what genuinely requires you.
Personal & Household Admin
Where the engagement includes it — renewals, appointments, household suppliers and the family calendar, kept as carefully as the professional one.
Retainers
Retained monthly and reviewed quarterly. Hours are held for the principal whether or not they are used.
A calendar quarter's notice. Every retainer includes a named second assistant, introduced before the engagement begins.
How We Are Built
One Principal At A Time
Every assistant we retain works to a single principal. It is the only arrangement in which an assistant can hold enough context to decide things rather than ask about them.
Fifteen Years Minimum
We recruit from in-house executive assistants, chiefs of staff and private offices. Nobody here is learning the work on your time.
Introduced, Not Assigned
You meet two candidates and choose. If the fit is wrong in the first quarter we replace without charge, and it has happened three times in seventeen years.
A Named Second
A second assistant is briefed on your preferences from the start and covers leave. You meet them; they are never a stranger arriving on a Monday.
Meet Two Assistants
Tell us about the week you are trying to protect. We will introduce two people we believe fit, and you will choose or decline without obligation.
From Enquiry To Settled
A Conversation
Forty minutes on the diary you have, the diary you want, and what you are prepared to let someone else decide.
Two Introductions
Within a fortnight you meet two assistants. We brief them properly first; you are not reading résumés aloud to strangers.
A Settling Quarter
The first three months are worked with weekly check-ins between us and the assistant, invisible to you unless something needs saying.
Quarterly Review
Thirty minutes each quarter on what should change. Most reviews change nothing, which is the point.
What A Retainer Includes
One assistant, retained to you
Not shared, not pooled, not reassigned without your agreement.
A named second
Briefed from the start, introduced before they are needed, working to the same written preferences.
A quarterly review
With us, not only with the assistant, so an awkwardness has somewhere to go.
Replacement without charge
If the fit is wrong in the first quarter, the introduction is repeated at our cost.
Written preferences
Your habits, limits and standing decisions documented, owned by you, and handed over if we part.
Anonymised By Title, As Always
I have had four assistants in twenty years. This is the first arrangement where I have never once been asked a question I had already answered.
The board pack arrives on Thursday whether or not I have chased anyone for it. I did not realise how much of my week that chasing had been.
They declined our first brief, told us we wanted a full-time hire rather than a retainer, and came back a year later when it was true. That is the whole reason we trust them now.
What Principals Ask
Is this a placement agency or a service?
A service. The assistant is retained through Penderly, which is what allows us to cover leave, hold the quarterly review and replace a poor fit without you running a recruitment process.
Where are the assistants based?
The United States, most of them on the East Coast. Time zone matters more than geography for this work, and we will tell you plainly if a candidate's hours do not suit your week.
Can the assistant work on personal matters?
Where the retainer says so, yes — many principals include household and family administration deliberately, because that is where the hours actually go. It is agreed in writing rather than left to drift.
What happens if I hire the assistant in-house?
Several principals have. There is a transfer fee stated in the retainer, and we have never contested one. An assistant who has become indispensable has done the job.
How quickly can an engagement start?
Introductions within a fortnight; a settled start usually four to six weeks from the first conversation. Interim cover can move faster when a principal has been left without an assistant.
When We Decline
When You Need A Hire
If the work is genuinely full time and permanent, a retainer is the more expensive answer. We will say so and, if it helps, tell you what to pay.
When The Brief Is Anonymous
An assistant who may not know who they work for cannot exercise judgement. We do not take engagements behind an intermediary who will not name the principal.
Forty Minutes, No Obligation
Most principals speak to us months before they engage. That is the normal way round.
Request An Introduction
A note on the week you are trying to protect and a day that suits. We reply personally, within one working day.
- Visit usGreenwich, CT 06830
- Call us(203) 555-0164
- Email usoffice@penderly.com