London

Rhonda Scharf

Insightful … humorous … entertaining … even contagious J … 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 and member of the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame, Trainer and Author, based in Ottawa. She has spoken to tens of thousands of people in dozens of 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” and her best-seller “Common Sense is NOT Common Practice” still available.

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

Vickie Sokol Evans

Literally making the audiences’ jaws drop, Vickie Sokol Evans, author of the bestselling “100 Tips” series for both PC & Mac, is one of the leading tech trainers in the world right now.

Who knew that Microsoft Office could be so fun? She’s witty, sharp, pointed and knows more about how to get the most from Microsoft Office – teaching Assistants tricks to turn what usually takes hours into solutions that takes minutes, by learning how to use the programs to their full potential.

Vickie is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, specializing in Microsoft, Google and Apple productivity platforms such as Microsoft Office, OneNote, SharePoint, Skype/Lync, Office 365, Google Apps, Gmail, The Cloud, and more!

Vickie has taught at every LIVE event and is our most requested return speaker, with 98% of our audiences wanting her back.

Vickie travels the globe as a sought-after international speaker delivering live Jerry Maguire-inspired keynote presentations to major brands including Microsoft, Starbucks, MasterCard, The New York Times, eBay, American Airlines, The Gates Foundation, and most notably, Bill Gates’s Admin Team. Vickie helps businesses to save time and deliver better results faster – showcasing an immediate ROI after each session.

Julia Schmidt

Julia Schmidt is an award-winning Executive Assistant with over 20 years of experience working in different industries. She is known for being a passionate advocate for people development and in helping others succeed and embrace their leadership skills. Julia is a respected influencer, public speaker, and a proud graduate of the University of Norway with a Masters’ Degree in Portuguese Language and Literature and has also studied Business Administration. Julia is the author of The Executive Secretary Guide to Building a Successful Career Strategy, available now on Amazon.

John Shaw

John Shaw is a small-town boy who grew up in a very rural community in the American South. At 18 years old and living in Nashville, he was thrust into the world of privilege when he began his career as an executive assistant supporting country music royalty. After 13 years of providing administrative support to award-winning recording artists and celebrities, John left the entertainment industry to broaden his knowledge and skills, and hone his talent further with a move into management consulting. He eventually returned to the world of entertainment, supporting the head of marketing of three major television networks, but John still felt he had something bigger to offer to the world.

He found the opportunity he’d been looking for to make a bigger impact as part of his career, when he was hired in 2014 by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, to be her executive assistant. He now enjoys spending his time with some of the brightest minds in global health, global development, and U.S. education, and no one seems to care that he never finished college. When John’s not at work, you can find
him with his family and three dogs.

Lizebeth Koloko-Green

Lizebeth is bilingual in French and English. She is currently the Executive Assistant to the Senior Country Director of Symantec France. Lizebeth has been with Symantec for fifteen years. Before that, she worked as an Executive Assistant to the CEO of one of Microsoft partners, Areda Computer Systems, in San Diego, California. Lizebeth is very passionate about learning and teaching Information Technology Software. She often trains Executives, Sales Reps, and Administrative Professionals on Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

Lizebeth is a proud member of IMA France (International Management Assistants Network) and IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals). She enjoys lecturing and speaking about Information Technology in general, at administrative conferences and events. Lizebeth holds a degree in Office Management from the University of Paris Créteil and is certified as a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Outlook 2016.

She was born in Paris, France but grew up in Fremont, California. Currently, she resides in Paris, France, with her seven-year-old daughter, Aaliyah. In her spare time, Lizebeth loves studying and learning foreign languages and new information technologies. She is currently studying German and Mandarin Chinese.

Jeremy Burrows

Jeremy Burrows has 12+ years of experience as an Executive Assistant supporting fast-paced, high-capacity, influential leaders. He has worked with CEOs, Professional Athletes, Celebrities, Pastors, Authors, Speakers, and Board Members in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.

Currently, Jeremy is EA to the CEO of an artificial intelligence software company in St. Louis, MO.

Jeremy is also founder of GoBurrows.com where his blog, group training, one-on-one coaching, online courses, and top rated podcast for assistants – The Leader Assistant Podcast – help executives and assistants reclaim their time and energy, so they can lead well without burning out.

Christy Crump

Christy Crump was appointed director of operations for Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association’s RCS Training in 2012. Her background includes 20 years in high level administrative positions and five years as founder and President of Crump & Associates, a training and professional development company with a client list including Fortune 500 companies. Christy now leads a team of 40 trainers who provide hospitality regulatory training to over 1600 clients in Florida and professional development training throughout the United States.

Christy has been married to a law enforcement officer for 27 years and is the mother of two beautiful daughters.

Bonnie Low-Kramen

International speaker and trainer Bonnie Low-Kramen worked as the Personal Assistant to Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis for 25 years. She is recognized as one of the most respected and influential thought leaders in the profession. 14 countries in, Bonnie now travels the world working to be a catalyst for change. She is an outspoken advocate for closing the wage gap and for ending workplace bullying. Her mission is to build healthy, strong, and productive partnerships in the global workplace to make the world a better place for her granddaughter Madison.

Bonnie is the author of the bestselling “Be the Ultimate Assistant” and her work was featured as the Forbes cover story in May, 2019.

Danny McCubbin

Mentor, food campaigner and social entrepreneur, Danny McCubbin has dedicated his career to promoting food-focussed social enterprises and helping diverse businesses create social value, with the belief that food has the power to transform lives.

While Danny played a crucial role in Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners programme and the Jamie Oliver Fifteen apprenticeship scheme that helped disadvantaged young people find a career in food, he is also the founder of the UK San Patrignano Association and serves as its UK ambassador. The social enterprise in Italy is one of the world’s most progressive, successful drug rehab communities, helping its young residents overcome addiction through skills including winemaking, food growing and restaurant placements.

Through his work, Danny has created a worldwide network of both small and large social enterprises, sharing ideas and information and consulting on various food-focused projects, as well as fundraising, hosting supper clubs and aiding collaboration between diverse community organisations. Most recently, Danny has been a judge on the Giving Back panel at the well-respected Young British Foodies Awards, been nominated for the Foodism 100 Positive Change Hero, and collaborated on the hugely successful Cook for Syria campaign.

Danny is now Culture Manager at Jamie Oliver headquarters in London, where he spearheads a breakfast and lunch programme that feeds 100 people daily, bringing staff together over a meal and spreading Jamie’s core belief in the power of food education. Danny also leads events and workshops to encourage young people to enter the hospitality industry, as well as continuing his work as a mentor and facilitator for both Fifteen and San Patrignano. Through his various roles, Danny has built an engaged social media following and runs social media workshops and consultations for charities, NGOs and community-based projects to help and encourage them to spread their message. Danny is regularly invited to speak at international conferences on how food can be used as a force for positive change.

Tricia Madden

Tricia is the Head of the Business Support group with KPMG’s UK firm and is accountable for the delivery of all secretarial and administration services. The Business Support Group was established 8 years ago with Tricia at the helm and currently provides services to over 4000 customers across all capability and coverage groups within the UK firm, delivered through an experienced workforce of circa 700+ employees and has a cost base of £26m.

Commercially astute, Tricia manages the P&L and associated budgets for the group, continuously developing strategies to ensure the role and services stay current with service demands and market. Successfully reducing the cost of delivery whilst the customer base has grown year on year since inception.

An ambassador of change and personal development, nurturing a high performing and rewarding culture within her group. Embracing diversity and social mobility is always at the forefront of her mind and actions – being the first function within KPMG to implement an apprenticeship programme – The Business Support Academy, to provide job opportunities to individuals from both diverse and disadvantaged communities.

Tricia has a wealth of experience and an established network within her area of expertise and has built her reputation on fairness and honest communication.

Joan Burge

The keynote speaker at the Executive Secretary LIVE event in London on March 27-28, 2020 is the illustrious Joan Burge, Founder & CEO of Las Vegas-based Office Dynamics International— the pioneering company in administrative training. Esteemed for her many accomplishments, Joan is an author, professional speaker, consultant and corporate trainer. Yet there is so much more to Joan that makes her a star in her own right.  

Training for administrative assistants was hard to come by until the year 1990 when Office Dynamics International (ODI) was born. Visionary Joan Burge identified an untapped niche and built up a training company to inspire excellence among administrative professionals. Now celebrating its 29th year, ODI has grown into a global leader, offering a broad range of solutions and sophisticated coaching and training programs for executive assistants and administrative professionals.  

As with any success story, ODI started as a big idea. There were obstacles (many of them!) as well as doubts and fears that Joan had to hurdle in order to ignite that big idea into existence… and more importantly, to keep its flame burning bright. 

On March 27-28, 2020, attendees of the Executive Secretary Live in London will get to know Joan Burge at a deeper level as she shares her journey, describes the challenges she faced along the way, and reveals the proven formulas that push one to succeed. 

Joan has always been a staunch advocate of the administrative profession. As a once-upon-a-time executive assistant and now a CEO, she leverages her unique insights having worked from both sides of the desk. This she combines with her skill in instructional design to customize her development and mentoring programs. 

Lucy Brazier

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

As CEO of Marcham Publishing, specialist publishers of Executive Secretary Magazine – a global training magazine dedicated to the professional development needs of senior and aspiring administrative professionals – Lucy works with the best trainers of Executive Assistants from around the world to deliver the most up to date and current training in the market.

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 trainers 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.