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Marion Riemenschneider is Executive Assistant to the CEO of Novartis, who fully credits Marion’s extraordinary proficiency, dedication, and willingness to go the extra mile with ensuring the success of his transition to CEO. In addition to her organizational, communication, and collaboration skills, she consistently demonstrates tremendous adaptability and agility, establishing herself as a true and valued partner. Marion cares deeply about Novartis and the ways in which the company impacts the world, seeing her work as serving the higher purpose of improving human health. She shows tremendous leadership in navigating multiple asks and handling them with courage and tact while maintaining an upbeat approach that ensures continued positive relationships with key stakeholders across various offices and sectors. Additionally, she created and leads a network of more than 100 Executive Assistants across the company, engaging them to collaborate in their daily work, share best practices, and support each other professionally and personally. Marion is a shining example of leadership who brings her whole heart to her work and ensures her peers receive the support, dignity, and recognition they deserve.

Lisa Habig is Senior Executive Assistant to the CEO of PTC, Inc., where she has garnered a reputation as a truly exceptional and trusted partner. She is known for being tough, smart, hard-working, positive, and committed to excellence, and a confident self-starter who proactively addresses day-to-day challenges and opportunities. Through her own initiative, Lisa pulled together all of PTC’s Executive Assistants into an EA Forum where they meet periodically to collaboratively discuss and align around best practices and company-wide standards for the profession. After seeing her exceptional skills as a manager, PTC changed reporting structures so that all EAs now report to Lisa. Though she often has many balls in the air at once, she never drops any, always maintaining her impeccable work standards. Lisa has become a powerful force at PTC in just a few short years, emerging as a respected member of the executive leadership team whose leadership qualities distinguish her as an invaluable colleague.

Kelley Duchesne is Senior Office Manager at Massachusetts Technology, where she accomplishes so much more than any title could imply — it’s no exaggeration to say that she is the company’s heart and soul. Kelley selflessly intends for her work to be seamless and even invisible, and she always asks team members what more she can do to better help and support them. During the past year, these efforts have been more impactful than ever — when MassTLC faced a steep drop in revenue due to the pandemic, Kelley immediately began investigating the company’s eligibility for PPP funding, and despite an initial rejection, continued exploring possibilities until she secured funds. During social-distancing protocols, she went the extra mile — literally — to drive documents to the CEO for signature in his driveway. Considering Kelley stops at nothing to support the MassTLC team, it’s no wonder her colleagues describe her as “the best coworker, bar none,” “the core of the team,” “stellar,” “unwavering,” and “awe-inspiring.”

Nichole “Nikki” Anderson is Executive Assistant at Coforma, where she has played an invaluable role in the company’s expansion, from supporting team members through onboarding to prioritizing a culture of fairness, empathy, and inclusivity. Her positive attitude and proactive approach to collaboration make her a joy to work with, a sentiment shared across multiple departments at Coforma. She has gone above and beyond in supporting her coworkers in times of stress, by cleaning up their inboxes and keeping them in the loop about the executive team’s priorities and schedule. She has been masterful at syncing up the company’s growing legal and executive teams, allowing the teams to collaborate on managing new contract opportunities, which have grown nearly 70% from the previous year. Nikki is stellar at leveraging years of experience across different industries to bring forward useful skills, from research expertise to event planning philosophies to assembling expansive compliance matrices in just a few days. She is the very definition of the “best of the best.”

Jocelynne Timmons is Executive Assistant at NJ Civil Service Commission, serving as a true partner who tackles every challenge with grace. She plans, initiates, and executes programs and special projects, serves as an Ethics Officer for the agency, and acts as Secretary to the agency’s Labor, Human Resources, Police, and Fire Advisory Boards, among many other responsibilities. Despite the many hats she wears, she is the first to volunteer to take on additional tasks to ensure the success of the agency’s mission. Jocelynne is a successful troubleshooter who anticipates issues and takes action to address them, which is why she is so often sought out by her colleagues for guidance. This summer, she took on the responsibility of managing the agency’s summer internship program and created opportunities for interns to learn about other departments, divisions, and offices outside of their regular assignments and meet with the lieutenant governor. Jocelynne always goes the extra mile to ensure that her fellow employees feel valued and included.

Liz Rafferty is Office Manager and Executive Assistant at AboveBoard, where she has become known as “competence personified” — but her real gift is in building relationships. Not only has she been by her leader’s side for more than 20 years (and at four different companies), but Liz has a way of charming everyone — from CEOs and directors to engineers and cleaning staff — with her warm professionalism and contagious laugh. People are not only delighted to work with Liz but go above and beyond to meet her high standards. She interacts with each company board member differently based on their preferences, and they and other senior leaders have written dozens of notes over the years about how great Liz is. She also helps to coach new executives, teaching them how to operate at her expert level. Liz is a sounding board and true partner to her CEO, and always maintains an even keel and a offers a broad perspective.