The Executive Personal Assistant
Family Office Services
What is an Executive Personal Assistant?
An Executive Personal Assistant (EPA) is a hybrid support professional who operates across both professional and private environments.
The position supports business obligations while also overseeing personal logistics, ensuring continuity between corporate demands and daily life. This may include overseeing executive calendars, interfacing with business stakeholders, and supporting operational priorities, while simultaneously handling travel, residences, appointments, and confidential personal matters.
Because the position bridges two environments, it requires strong judgment, boundaries, and the ability to move fluidly between formal corporate settings and private spaces.
An Executive Personal Assistant is not simple administrative support, for many, the EPA becomes a trusted right hand and can often evolve into a Chief of Staff for many principals. The role demands discretion, precision, and an understanding that professional obligations and personal life are often deeply intertwined - and must be managed cohesively.
Those interested in the support of an Executive Personal Assistant, may also like to explore the role of the Lifestyle Manager.
To learn more about working with an Executive Personal Assistant, or to begin the placement process, we invite you to connect for a consultation.
The Scope of an Executive Personal Assistant
In complex lives, business and personal responsibilities rarely exist in isolation. An Executive Personal Assistant provides cohesive oversight across both, maintaining clarity where obligations overlap.
The EPA role may include:
Managing complex, multi-layered executive calendars
Coordinating business and personal travel across time zones
Acting as liaison between the principal and key stakeholders
Preparing briefing materials, itineraries, and meeting logistics
Overseeing confidential communications and documentation
Aligning household logistics with business commitments
Supporting special projects that cross personal and corporate lines
Maintaining continuity across residences, offices, and travel locations
Executing time sensitive personal requests
Because the role operates across two spheres, clarity of authority, confidentiality, and structure are essential from the outset.
Questions and Answers
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An Executive Personal Assistant provides high level operational support across a principal’s professional and personal responsibilities. The role is execution-focused; managing logistics, communications, coordination, and continuity across both spheres.
A Chief of Staff, by contrast, operates at a strategic level within a business or family office structure. The position is centered on leadership alignment, organizational oversight, long term planning, and internal decision making. A Chief of Staff often manages teams or departments and influences broader company direction.
In simple terms:
An EPA ensures the principal’s world runs smoothly day to day.
A Chief of Staff helps shape and steer the organization itself. -
The structure varies. Many EPAs operate across multiple environments; providing support from a corporate office, private residence, family office, or while traveling.
The role is defined less by location and more by proximity to decision making and responsibility.
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An EPA becomes appropriate when business obligations and personal life are deeply intertwined - and when managing them separately leads to friction.
If calendars overlap, travel blends corporate and private commitments, or confidential matters span both spheres, integrated support is often more effective than maintaining two separate roles.
How to Hire an Executive Personal Assistant.
At The Grocery Store, The Anti-Agency, the process begins with a brief conversation about your priorities, pace, and the way you prefer your days to unfold. From there, the role is defined with clarity and a discreet search is conducted to identify candidates aligned with your working style and expectations.
The Grocery Store places Executive Personal Assistants across major residential, metropolitan, and resort destinations:
Southern California, Los Angeles, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, and surrounding communities
Northern California, San Francisco, Atherton, Palo Alto, Woodside, and the greater Bay Area
Florida, Miami, Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and neighboring coastal areas
New York City and New York State, the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, SoHo, TriBeCa, Chelsea, Brooklyn, the Hamptons, and the greater Tri-State area
Connecticut and nearby regions, Greenwich, Stamford, Westchester, and surrounding communities
New England, Boston and surrounding areas of Massachusetts, as well as Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
The Midwest, Chicago and surrounding areas
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Maryland and Virginia
Texas, Houston, Austin, Dallas, and other major cities
The Pacific Northwest, Seattle and Portland
Resort destinations, Aspen, Colorado, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming
The Hawaiian Islands, Honolulu, Maui, and the North Shore
Nationwide, with select international placements
