Lucy Brazier is CEO of Marcham Publishing, specialist publishers of Executive Support – a global training magazine dedicated to the professional development needs of senior and aspiring administrative professionals.

Lucy is one of the world’s leading authorities on the administrative profession.

Her  passion  is  for  the  assistant  role  to  be  truly  recognised  as  a  career  and  not  just  a  job.  Her  formidable  training  expertise  and  speaking  style  have  given  her  opportunities  to train, present and chair in over 45 countries at over 400 events, including chairing the 2015 World Administrator Summit in Papua New Guinea. This has created much needed discussions from encouraging executive assistants in Blue Chip companies to work towards becoming centres of excellence within their companies to explaining why college students should see the assistant role as proper profession with a career path.

Lucy has a unique overview of the role and where it is heading. With access to the most forward thinking, passionate and knowledgeable authorities on the role in the world as well as personally meeting and speaking to literally thousands of assistants over the last seven years, Lucy’s knowledge of the market and what assistants all over the world are facing on a day-to-day basis are second to none.

Lucy’s  unique  insight  into  the  world  of  the  executive  assistants  brings  a  distinct  qual-ity  and  depth  to  her  specialist  development  programmes.  She  continuously  researches,  develops and delivers to bring the most current, innovative and challenging development programmes to support assistants in rapidly changing business environments to meet the increasing skill sets required of senior assistants.

Lucy has been a publisher and events organiser for over 29 years. Lucy previously worked as a publishing director for Wilmington PLC, and has managed a team based in Singapore, New  York,  Germany  and  London  responsible  for  13  magazines,  12  international  confer-ences, awards, trade show attendance and marketing for EMAP. Other companies worked for include: The Times, The Independent, Centaur Communications and Glass’s Guide.

Words that are often used to describe Rhonda Scharf, a speaker with the uncanny ability to look at the normal and see something quite different.

Rhonda is a professional speaker recently inducted into the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame. A trainer and author based in Ottawa, Canada, she has spoken to tens of thousands of people in almost 20 different countries.

Rhonda will share some things she has learned to help you thrive in your work environ­ment, emerging at the end of the day with a smile and a sense of accomplishment. Audi­ences far and wide sing her praises for her relevant and useful tips on administration, communication and workplace effectiveness!

Her natural warmth and sincerity are balanced by a healthy sense of the absurd, a com­bination that is useful in any situation. Rhonda has written eight books, with her latest “Alexa is Stealing her Job” due out Spring 2019, and her best-seller “Common Sense is NOT Common Practice” still available.

Rhonda’s professional speaking career began at age 2… when her mother would offer her 25 cents to be quiet for five minutes!

Sharon began her career in 1974 at Barclays Bank International Limited in Nottingham, having completed a two-year secretarial programme at Arnold and Carlton College. After leaving Barclays in 1995, Sharon worked for a small engineering company for 14 months, which became a stepping stone to her next position as secretary at Rolls- Royce plc, Engine Test Facility at Hucknall. In 2000, she moved on to secretary/PA in experimental operations at Derby, then gained further promotion in 2002 supporting the director of operations, civil aerospace. In 2009, Sharon returned to Hucknall as PA to the executive vice president in combustions and casings.

As a result of a reorganisation in 2013, Sharon moved to the rotatives supply chain unit in Derby. Sharon attained her Six Sigma Corporate Green Belt in 2008. The subject was “Creating Excellence”, which was based around behaviour, attitude and raising the professional standard of secretaries. Whilst at Rolls-Royce she coached, mentored and raised the professionalism of the secretarial population by arranging and facilitating secretarial workshops. Sharon also implemented several improvement initiatives, one of which she initiated and took an active role to develop a revised secretarial structure, and also implemented secretarial service level agreements. She was a STEM ambas­sador and attended local schools and colleges in different types of learning activities.

Sharon left Rolls-Royce in 2015 to embark on her new career as a trainer and coach.

Sharon is a former chair of EUMA, East Midlands branch, a fellow of the Institute of Ad­ministrative Management and also a branch administrator to the Institute of Directors, Cambridgeshire branch.

Audrey Regragui started learning about service and company values with a job at Mc- Donald’s. She then moved to Disney’s flagship Parisian store on the Champ Elysées, and there learned values about management like leading, coaching, working with customers and humility. Moving across the Atlantic, Audrey became the French cultural repre­sentative at Epcot’s World Showcase at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Upon her return to Europe, Audrey took on positions of increasing responsibility at Disney stores in France and the UK. She then changed career paths for the sake of her health and became an optician. Audrey and her partner moved to Switzerland, where she continued working in retail and management until further health complications led her to consider another career change.

After earning two certificates in management and HR, Audrey became the office manag­er at Expedia’s new Geneva location before working her way up to EA for the president and SVP of lodging. Audrey learned the hard way that EAs can be dispensable, so after she was laid off she became a PA for the VP of finance at Nissan International. Cutbacks at Nissan led her to Ferring Pharmaceuticals, where she’s currently the senior assistant for the SVP of R&D and VP of biotech.

With a degree in communications from Simmons College in Boston, MA, USA, and more than 20 years of international experience in the retail, executive education, real estate and the tobacco industries, Tracy Jaggi has a recognised track record of senior-level ex­ecutive support, management and training. Tracy’s philosophy centers around what role she can play in helping others find solutions for success. She is committed to excellence in service, has a strong ability to streamline processes, maximise efficiency and foster professional relationships within and outside of organisations. Tracy is an ambitious, outgoing individual who seeks adventure in everything! Tracy’s passion is to contribute, support and make a difference through diversity and inclusion.

Michela Luoni is a virtual office manager. In 2017 she founded her own brand company and started the challenging process of being a solopreneur after having spent her whole life as an employee.

A management assistant for over 10 years after having worked almost as many as a handling agent at Malpensa Airport, Michela made several critical decisions during her job path looking for a profession in which soft skills, language skills and passion for new technologies were appreciated.

During the last year, she helped a few female entrepreneurs find their way to com­municate their projects online. After that, she realised that helping people, especially women, to embrace the digitalisation was a true calling.

At present, she’s investing part of her time in creating courses in her hometown with the aim to help women who had a pause in their career due to a maternity or an elder par­ent to care. Partnering with a team of a psychologist and a finance coach, we empower women to exploit digitalisation to still be at their best.

She firmly believes that networking is crucial for every management assistant and pro­fessional, whatever path your career will take. Michela, who is fluent in English and Spanish, writes and talks about topics she has practical experience in, such as organisa­tion workflow, app and new trend, transition to VA, brand identity and brand reputation and communication in the digital era.

Karen Monaghan has been an assistant of various levels for her entire working life, start­ing out on work experience as a trade ticket collector and filing clerk in a brokerage firm at the tender age of 17! She moved into banking in her 20s and has been in one house or another ever since. She has worked at senior EA level for the last 20 years, supporting a global head of M&A at Chase (now J.P. Morgan), a chairman of the investment bank at Bear Stearns, an office manager for a while at Aberdeen Asset Management and finally to her current position at BNP Paribas.

Karen worked hard at school and went on to secretarial college, where she excelled and was very fortunate that a lecturer spotted her potential and set up her first assistant role in a construction company – where she eventually met her future husband! The remainder of Karen’s success can be put down to her willingness to observe, listen, learn and make the most of the opportunities in front of her to absorb and enjoy the various languages, cultures and diversity presented.

Eulàlia Ramírez is the area business development director in Eastern Spain for Melia Hotels International, the leading hotel company in Spain and the third largest in Europe. She has been in the hotel industry for more than 20 years, 15 of them specialised in the meetings and events industry in EMEA. Currently, Eulàlia leads the sales strategy and teams for Eastern Spain markets and 20 hotels in the key business segmentation on corporate travel and MICE (meetings, events, incentives). She’s a former member of MPI Spain Board of Directors.