Executive Assistant Real Estate

Dana D. Pelton

www.linked.com/in/danapelton • 515-***-**** • ***********@*****.***

Strategic Executive Administrator Driving Operational Excellence & Executive Efficiency

● Accomplished Executive Administrator with 16+ years of experience providing high-level support to EVPs, C-suite executives and senior leadership across technology, AI, and global operations. Adept at managing executive priorities, optimizing workflows, and fostering seamless collaboration among leadership teams.

● Proven track record in complex scheduling, international travel coordination, high-impact project execution, and strategic communication to enhance executive efficiency. Skilled in preparing board decks, facilitating cross-functional initiatives, and handling confidential business matters with discretion.

● Recognized for business insight, organizational agility, and a proactive approach to executive support. Thrives in fast-paced, dynamic environments, ensuring operational excellence and alignment with key business priorities.

● Core competencies include:

Executive-Level Project Management

Global Scheduling & International Travel Logistics

Board & Leadership Meeting Coordination

Strategic Communications & Presentation Development

Process Improvement & Workflow Optimization

Confidential & High-Stakes Decision Support

Endorsed by executives for exceptional leadership support, operational efficiency, and strategic impact.

● Nima Badiey, Strategic AI Partnerships Leader, Nvidia: Dana was our group EBA at GitLab supporting multiple VPs (Alliance, Channel, Customer Success, Sales Ops) with a growing cadre of team members and ever growing areas of responsibility. She helped the CRO leadership team plan and execute SKO, Presidents Club, endless QBRs, offsites, Board prep, Egroup prep, strategy upon strategy sessions galore and so much more. Most importantly she helped VPs like me stay ahead of the deluge of tasks and deliverables that without her would have been death by a thousand cuts. I highly and enthusiastically recommend Dana to support any Executive team

● Michael Schmidt, Senior Sr. Dir of Operations, Cruise: I had the pleasure of working closely with Dana at Cruise, and her impact on our team was truly remarkable. Dana not only excelled in the traditional responsibilities of an EA but went above and beyond to foster a positive team culture. She played a pivotal role in building a collaborative and supportive environment, creating a sense of unity among team members. Dana's efforts extended beyond the day-to-day tasks, and their influence was instrumental in shaping a positive and cohesive workplace.

● Cheri Holmes, Chief of Staff, GitHub: I had the privilege of working with Dana during my time at GitLab. I hired Dana to support 3 VPs on a fast-growing and ultra-demanding sales team. Dana is truly an absolute joy to work with. She brings a level of serenity and humility to everything she does, and it's truly remarkable. Dana consistently displayed thoughtfulness in her approach to work, ensuring that all details were taken care of and that nothing slipped through the cracks. She is an excellent collaborator, always seeking input from others and ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

EXPERIENCE

Tutored By Teachers – Claymont, DE (Remote)

Senior Executive Assistant, Co-Founders & CEO January 2024 – Present Tutored By Teachers serves high-need students through personalized virtual instruction with a focus on learning acceleration. Series A startup in EdTech.

● Revitalized the company’s approach to C-suite executive scheduling and logistics, enhancing the CEO and co-founders efficiency by enabling a 40% increase in strategic initiative development.

● Revamped CEO’s email inbox by creating a prioritization system and streamlining for efficiency.

● Coordinated over 60+ international and domestic travel arrangements and itineraries, ensuring seamless operation even during high-pressure periods.

● Served as a primary point of contact for inter-departmental communication, ensuring timely updates that boost executive task completion rate.

● Facilitated quarterly board meetings and materials preparation that contributed to a streamlined decision-making process and a 50% reduction in preparation time.

● Orchestrated the revamping of internal communication strategies, introducing Slack channels that improved alignment on project goals and increased overall productivity.

● Enhanced meeting effectiveness by developing a standardized agenda and follow-up protocol, leading to an increase in actionable outcomes by 30%.

● Produced high-impact presentation decks leading to more persuasive executive pitches and better decision-making.

● Strategically plan and execute flawless team offsites, team building events, quarterly executive retreats with 100% satisfaction scores.

Cruise LLC – San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

Senior Executive Assistant, SVP Commercial Operations June 2023 – December 2023 Cruise is building the world’s most advanced self-driving vehicles to safely connect people with the places, things, and experiences they care about.

● Deeply integrated with priorities and objectives of Commercial Operations, acting as a gatekeeper, time-advocate, and liaison for executives.

● Arrange complex domestic and international travel and logistics, including flights, hotel accommodations, and ground transportation.

● Coordinate various meetings, functions, and events including quarterly retreats and team-building offsites for our organization's leadership team.

● Lead the preparation and formatting of presentation materials and documents for leadership meetings.

● Team leader: own team requests inside and outside our organization, problem-solve, and assist with keeping the team on-track and organized.

● Culture-contributor: coordinate department initiatives, supervise, highlight, and celebrate essential team cultural/career moments; expand these skills cross-functionally and be an advocate and mentor outside the department.

● Find balance for executives and their teams while managing various team systems such as: meeting cadence, team calendars, and team Slack channels.

● Develop new processes for growing teams that prepare for extensive scale.

● Design systems and processes that create efficiency and time among leaders.

● APA Leader (Administrative Professionals Association). First executive assistant leadership group at Cruise. Participated as a leader to build strong leadership skills within the peer group, to create opportunities for the assistants to develop on a professional and personal level, to add priceless value to the support provided to the assistants' managers and teams.

Array Technologies, Inc. – Chandler, AZ (Hybrid)

Executive Assistant to the COO and CPO March 2023 – June 2023 Array Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in renewable energy solutions.

● Manage sensitive matters with a high level of confidentiality and discretion especially decisions directly impacting the global operations of the company.

● Maintain and manage a daily calendar of global meetings and events.

● Prepare Word, Excel, PowerPoint presentations, decks, agendas, reports, special projects and other documents in support of objectives for the organization.

● Arrange global travel and accommodations and prepare expense reports.

● Draft and prepare correspondence for internal announcements, board meetings, and organizations that Executives are involved with.

● Represented Array in a professional and positive light through great follow-through skills and sound judgment.

● Conserve Executives time by reading, researching, collecting, and analyzing information in advance.

● Support Executives with personal and family matters.

● Strong business sense and can decipher priorities and make sound judgment calls when needed.

● Interacted with people of all levels in a confident, professional, and timely manner.

● Service focus - dedicated to meeting the expectations of the COO by maintaining effective relationships with interested parties.

● Ability to think outside of the box with a sense of urgency. GitLab – San Francisco, CA (Remote)

Senior Executive Business Partner August 2021 – March 2023 GitLab Inc. is an open-core company that provides GitLab, a DevSecOps software package that combines the ability to develop, secure, and operate software in a single application.

● Support members of our Executive Group E-Group or CEO-Skips Leadership across various time-zones.

● Own and proactively manage a complex, changing, high-volume calendar across multiple time-zones. Ensure the Executive is prepared for every meeting.

● Make recommendations for the Executive in regard to their time management, prioritization, delegation and organization.

● Seamlessly coordinate extensive domestic and international travel including air and ground transportation, hotel reservations, security, visas and other travel documentation. Accompanying the Executive when necessary.

● Run cadence of weekly staff meetings and other important meetings, including planning agenda, organization, and follow-up on action items, while infusing our company values throughout.

● Plan events such as team off-sites, team building activities and company kick-offs as needed.

● Draft internal and external communications on behalf of Executives.

● Assist the full life cycle of recruiting including booking interviews, liaising between the hiring team and the candidate, and coordinating onboarding of new hires.

● Manage Executives email inbox including drafting internal and external communications on behalf of Executive.

● Compile receipts to submit timely and accurate expense reports on a monthly basis.

● Schedules live streams and moderates Group Conversations.

● Provide coverage for other Sr. E-Group EBA's.

● Run and lead special projects upon request.

Workiva – Scottsdale, AZ (Hybrid)

Senior Administrative Assistant to the CRO October 2011 – August 2021 Workiva delivers the leading cloud platform for reporting, compliance, and data management. Over 2,800 organizations use our award-winning solutions to modernize work across the enterprise.

● Responsible for coordinating and participating in multiple large-scale time-critical projects; and providing diverse senior executive level administrative support, including Chief Revenue Officer, General Manager of Integrated Risk, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Vice President of Revenue Operations, Vice President of Global Sales, Vice President of Global Customer Success and Vice President of Global Client Services, contributing to the team effort with meeting the department’s and company’s goals and objectives for effective operations.

● Plan and coordinate international and domestic large-scale team events and business meetings.

● Organize complex international and domestic travel programs groups of 300+.

● Lead, manage, and participate in projects specific to the department as well as interdepartmental projects.

● Contract and vendor management.

● Facilitate the onboarding process for new hires, supporting the growth of the team from 30 to 260 members.

● Facilitate daily work of Team Support Coordinators ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of the business unit.

Employee Engagement Initiatives

● Highly creative individual who develops and creates communication plans and campaigns.

● Uses cloud-based event management software to create websites and event app in order to streamline events and enhance ROI.

Workiva Accomplishments

● Manage event budget of $1.5 million.

● Domestic and international team events and meetings; earning a satisfaction rate of 9.8 out of 10 on participant satisfaction survey.

● Corporate Social Responsibility project creator and lead for domestic and international programs. Workiva Committees

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING, INC. – Des Moines, Iowa (Onsite) Executive Administrative Assistant to the CEO and President November 2007 – September 2011 A data-driven communications firm focused on creating more meaningful and profitable customer relationships. Supported CEO and the President with calendar management, correspondence to clients and business partners, maintained business reports in spreadsheets, created presentations, setting internal, external, phone, video and web conference meetings and prepared meeting materials. Set up domestic travel for several executives, manage five conference rooms and their respective calendars, manage several key company financial reports/recordkeeping, and create a filing system. Sought out innovative ways to become more efficient and streamline daily activities, corporate event planning, manage voicemails of executives, produce transcripts of sales calls, accept and deliver packages, greet clients, answer phones, and other miscellaneous tasks as assigned. Manage one administrative assistant. EDUCATION: University of Iowa – B.A. Business Administration, May 2011. GPA 3.75

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