Executive Assistant (EA) to MD

Executive Assistant to the Managing Director

Location: Gurgaon / Delhi NCR

Department: MD’s Office / Executive Office

Reporting To: Managing Director

Experience: 3–5 years

Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

We are looking for a highly organised, proactive and execution-oriented Executive Assistant to the Managing Director who can work closely with the MD and act as the bridge between the MD and the wider organisation.

This is not a conventional administrative EA role. The individual will be responsible for ensuring that the MD’s priorities are translated into clear actions, delegated to the right people, tracked rigorously and closed on time.

The ideal candidate should have exceptional follow-up skills, strong ownership, integrity, discretion and the ability to get work done through people at all levels of the organisation.

The person should be comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment where priorities can change quickly and where the EA is expected to anticipate requirements rather than simply wait for instructions.

Key Responsibilities

1. Executive Coordination & Task Management

• Act as the MD’s central point of coordination for internal and external follow-ups.
• Maintain a comprehensive MD Task & Delegation Tracker covering all tasks delegated by the MD.
• Convert discussions and instructions into clearly defined actions, owners and deadlines.
• Obtain clear commitment from the concerned person on what will be completed and by when.
• Follow up systematically until the task is completed.
• Escalate delays, bottlenecks and lack of response to the MD.
• Ensure that important commitments do not get lost among day-to-day activities.
• Maintain daily, weekly and monthly follow-up lists.
• Prepare status updates for the MD highlighting completed, pending, delayed and critical tasks.

2. Acting as the MD’s Voice

• Communicate instructions and priorities to employees on behalf of the MD.
• Coordinate with senior managers, functional heads and team members to ensure timely execution of MD’s directives.
• Follow up with people across functions, including senior employees, while maintaining professionalism and respect.
• Build the credibility required to get work done through others.
• Ensure that tasks delegated by the MD receive appropriate priority and attention.
• Represent the MD professionally in routine coordination and follow-up matters.

3. Calendar, Meetings & Communication

• Manage the MD’s calendar, meetings, appointments and priorities.
• Coordinate meetings with internal teams, customers, vendors, consultants and other stakeholders.
• Prepare meeting agendas, required information and follow-up points where required.
• Maintain minutes/action points from important meetings.
• Track commitments arising from meetings and ensure closure.
• Screen and appropriately route calls, messages and requests reaching the MD.
• Manage routine communication and correspondence on behalf of the MD as authorised.

4. Email Management

• Monitor and organise the MD’s email inbox.
• Understand the context and priority of incoming communication.
• Draft responses, acknowledgements and follow-ups on behalf of the MD where appropriate.
• Maintain a system for ensuring important emails receive timely responses.
• Track pending responses and follow-ups.
• Over time, take increasing ownership of routine email communication for the MD.

5. Research & Information Support

• Conduct online research on topics assigned by the MD.
• Research companies, markets, competitors, customers, products, technologies and business opportunities.
• Identify reliable information sources and prepare concise summaries.
• Collect, organise and present information in a manner that enables the MD to make decisions quickly.
• Maintain organised records of research and reference material.
• Support the MD with preparation of presentations, reports, documents and business notes.

6. Cross-Functional Coordination

Work closely with teams such as:

• R&D
• Manufacturing
• Quality & Regulatory
• Sales
• Marketing
• Finance
• HR
• Administration
• Supply Chain / Procurement

The EA will be expected to understand enough about each function to track actions, identify delays and ensure that commitments made to the MD are followed through.

7. Personal & Confidential Assistance

• Coordinate personal and professional requirements of the MD where requested.
• Manage bookings, appointments, travel arrangements and other logistical requirements.
• Coordinate with external service providers when required.
• Handle sensitive personal and business information with complete confidentiality and discretion.
• Be comfortable taking ownership of legitimate personal and professional coordination tasks that help the MD use his/her time more effectively.

8. Administrative Coordination

• Coordinate with office administration and support staff for requirements of the MD’s office.
• Ensure required documents, reports and information are available before meetings and discussions.
• Maintain organised digital and physical records where required.
• Coordinate travel, accommodation, events and other logistics.

What Success Looks Like

The successful candidate should enable the MD to spend less time chasing people and doing coordination and more time thinking, making decisions and driving the organisation.

Success in this role means:

• Every important MD instruction has an owner and deadline.
• Follow-ups happen without the MD having to repeatedly ask.
• Delayed tasks are identified and escalated proactively.
• Meetings result in clear action points and closure.
• Important emails and commitments do not fall through the cracks.
• Information required by the MD is researched and presented quickly.
• Employees understand that requests communicated by the EA are priorities coming from the MD.
• The MD can increasingly delegate coordination and execution to the EA with confidence.

Key Skills & Competencies

Must-Have

1. Exceptional Follow-Up Skills

This is the most important requirement for the role. The candidate must naturally keep track of multiple open items and follow through until closure.

2. Execution Orientation

Should be able to move things from “we need to do this” to “this has been completed.”

3. Ownership & Accountability

Should not require constant supervision and should proactively identify what needs to be done.

4. Strong Communication Skills

Excellent spoken and written English, with the ability to communicate professionally with employees, senior management, customers and external stakeholders.

5. Ability to Work Through People

Should be comfortable following up with people across levels and handling situations where people are resistant, unresponsive or delayed.

6. Integrity & Confidentiality

The role involves access to sensitive business, financial, strategic and personal information. Absolute integrity and discretion are essential.

7. Organisation & Attention to Detail

Ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, meetings, emails and follow-ups simultaneously.

8. Proactiveness

Should anticipate requirements, identify potential delays and take action before being asked.

Technical Skills

• Strong working knowledge of MS Office, particularly:
• Excel
• Word
• PowerPoint
• Good knowledge of Gmail / Outlook and calendar management.
• Strong internet research and information-gathering skills.
• Ability to maintain trackers, action lists and databases.

Education & Experience

• Graduate in any discipline.
• 3–5 years of experience as an Executive Assistant, Assistant to MD/CEO/Director, Executive Secretary, Office Coordinator or similar role.
• Experience working directly with a senior executive or business owner will be preferred.
• Experience in a startup, entrepreneurial or fast-growing organisation will be an advantage.
• Demonstrated stability in previous employment and evidence of taking increasing responsibility.

Preferred Personality Traits

We are looking for someone who is:

• Highly organised
• Reliable
• Assertive but respectful
• Calm under pressure
• Persistent with follow-ups
• Resourceful
• Quick to learn
• Mature and discreet
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Comfortable interacting with senior people
• Strong at building relationships
• Naturally inclined towards getting things done

The person does not need to know everything on Day 1. We can train knowledge and systems. What cannot easily be trained is integrity, ownership, follow-through and the ability to get things done.