Executive Assistant to the CEO

About Generation Success

Generation Success is a social impact organisation focused on social mobility, connecting young people from underrepresented backgrounds to white-collar employment opportunities. We work at the intersection of early careers, employer readiness, and systemic access — helping future-ready diverse talent reach the professional world, and helping employers build the workplace of tomorrow.
We are a small, ambitious team of six currently navigating a critical survival-to-scale phase. Our CEO, James Adeleke, also serves on the Education Board for the City of London Corporation and is a recognised voice in social mobility and early careers development. This role sits at the centre of the organisation.

About the Role
This is not a typical EA role. You will be the operational backbone behind a founder-CEO who balances strategic leadership, external board commitments, daily content creation, and the demands of building a mission-driven organisation with a young family.

You need to be someone who can anticipate what James needs before he asks, protect his time fiercely, and keep the operational machinery running so he can focus on the work that only he can do: strategy, partnerships, thought leadership, and external representation.

The right person will thrive in ambiguity, take ownership without being asked, and understand that in a team of six, everyone does whatever is necessary to move the mission forward.


Core Responsibilities
1. Diary & Time Management
- Own and manage James's calendar — scheduling, rescheduling, and protecting focus time
- Coordinate meetings across multiple stakeholders including corporate partners, advisory board members, the City of London Corporation, and internal team
- Proactively manage scheduling conflicts and ensure adequate preparation time between meetings
- Protect James's structured morning routines (meditation, journaling, brain training, content creation) by ensuring no early-morning scheduling intrusions

2. Email & Communications Management
- Triage and manage James's email inbox — categorise, flag, draft responses, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks
- Draft replies and correspondence in James's voice and tone
- Manage LinkedIn messages and inbox — respond to all messages (not just sales) in a timely, professional manner
- Flag urgent items and escalate decisions that require James's direct input

3. Operational Support
- Prepare meeting agendas, briefing notes, and follow-up action summaries
- Support document preparation and formatting for board packs, partner proposals, and strategic documents
- Coordinate logistics for events including Open Your Doors Day, careers days, and roundtables
- Manage Asana tasks and project tracking — ensure deadlines are met and nothing stalls
- Support the team with ad hoc administrative, research, and coordination tasks as needed

4. Content & Thought Leadership Support
- Support James's daily LinkedIn content creation process — scheduling, light editing, engagement tracking
- Assist with preparation for speaking engagements, panel discussions, and board meetings
- Help coordinate thought leadership outputs including white papers, research briefs, and partnership communications

5. Family-Aware Flexibility
- Understand and accommodate the reality that James has a young family (3-year-old and baby) — emergencies happen, and this role requires someone who can hold the fort calmly
- Provide cover on scheduling and communications when James is managing family commitments


About You

Essential
- Exceptional organisational skills — you are the kind of person who brings order to chaos
- Strong written communication — you can draft professional emails, LinkedIn messages, and correspondence that sound like they came from someone senior
- Proactive mindset — you anticipate needs and act before being asked
- Comfortable with ambiguity — in a small team, your job description is a starting point, not a boundary
- Discretion and trustworthiness — you will have access to sensitive strategic, financial, and partnership information
- Confident using digital tools — Google Workspace, Asana, LinkedIn, Zoom, and willingness to learn new platforms quickly
- Genuine alignment with GS's mission — social mobility, early careers, and creating opportunity for young people from underrepresented backgrounds

Desirable
- Experience supporting a founder or senior executive in a startup or small organisation
- Familiarity with CRM systems (Go High Level or similar)
- Experience with social media management, particularly LinkedIn
- Comfort with AI tools — we use AI extensively across the organisation and expect tea ---------- mbers to leverage these tools
- Understanding of the social impact, education, or early careers sector
- Sales support experience — some commercial activities may be part of the role depending on team structure

What We're Not Looking For
This role is not for someone who needs detailed instructions for every task, waits to be told what to do, or sees their responsibilities as limited to a fixed list. We need someone who sees a gap, fills it, and then tells us about it afterwards.

Why Join Generation Success
- Mission that matters: Every day, your work directly contributes to opening doors for young people who wouldn't otherwise have access
- Direct access to leadership: You work alongside the CEO, not three layers below — your impact is immediate and visible
- Growth stage exposure: GS is at a critical inflection point — you'll see and contribute to what it takes to scale a social enterprise
- Flexibility: Remote working with genuine flexibility — we care about output, not hours logged
- Network access: Exposure to corporate partners, City of London Corporation, advisory board members, and the broader social mobility ecosystem
- AI-forward culture: We don't just talk about AI — we use it daily. You'll develop skills that are increasingly valuable across every industry

How to Apply
Please send your CV and a short cover note (no more than 300 words) explaining why this role interests you and what makes you the right fit.

In your cover note, please address:
1. A specific example of a time you anticipated a problem before it became one
2. How you organise your own work and priorities
3. Why GS's mission resonates with you