Jennifer Langston Email and Phone Number

When I joined Gates Ventures in 2019, my Senior Executive Business Administrator role was focused primarily on operations support. The core of my role saw me working on internal and external events, human resources, contracts management, and process development for contracts management, recruiting and onboarding, and best practices for team effectiveness. Within the human resources bucket, I was our recruitment manager and coordinator, managed our onboarding, offboarding, and related space planning, and was our point of contact for internal and external questions. I was assigned to many special projects – the most notable of which was acting as a member of the CEO Search Committee for a subsidiary company, and providing Executive Assistant support to the CEO upon their hire. I also filled gaps where needed including vacation coverages for our Senior Program Manager, Administration providing support for our Managing Director, and backfill for resource constraints, including acting as the interim Program Manager for six months.In January 2022 following my stint as interim Program Manager, I was officially promoted into the role. My focus was primarily on leadership meeting preparations and execution, internal process management and improvement, and driving and tracking action items. During this time, a six-month coverage was needed to support our Managing Director including complex calendar and travel management and follow-up item tracking. I managed two Senior Executive Business Administrators and worked with them on problem solving, brainstorming, workload management, and performance evaluations. I have learned a great deal about working within a matrixed organization and across teams, and vastly grew my project management skills.

Upon my return from my secondment, I was asked to provide Senior Program Assistant support to a Director and two Deputy Directors on their team. The role was similar to others listed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation mentioned below, and included complex calendar management, travel planning, expense reporting, management of two Program Assistants, and acting as a leadership representative on our Executive Team Support Team.

While working on the Vaccine Development & Surveillance team of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Director I supported was tapped to stand up the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute and become its Chief Executive Officer. I was asked join as their Executive Assistant to help build the organization out. During this time, I provided complex travel and calendar management for them and our eventual Chief of Staff. I prepared daily briefings and acted as our point of contact for our Board of Directors, executive office, brand consultants, communications consultants, as well as our recruiting firm. I recruited and managed two Senior Administrative Assistants, as well as led the search for my backfill when my secondment came to an end. What I am most proud of during this time was the thought partnership I was able to provide to my executive. I learned numerous things during this stint, but my biggest takeaways were further developing my capacity for reprioritization, and relationship building.

I joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initially as a contract employee with the Global Health Office of the President, acting as “Floater,” providing support in both Senior Program Assistant and Program Assistant roles across various teams within the program. For the last six months of my contract, I provided back-up assistance in the Office of the President to the Executive Assistant to the President. Additionally, I was assigned to special projects including our space usage redesign for the Global Health Program, a pilot of our Onboarding Program for temporary administrative staff, and the development of a project request form to aid in bandwidth redistribution. Nine months into my contract, I joined the Foundation formally as a full-time employee. During my time, I sat on four teams, excluding a one-year secondment to help stand up the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. Throughout my time with the Foundation, I supported Directors, Deputy Directors, Senior Program Officers, and Program Officers. Level of support varied but generally included complex calendar and international and domestic travel management, visa procurement, expense reporting, management of Program Assistants, event planning and support, space management, and acting as point of contact for grantees and partners. I sat on our Global Health Executive Team Support Team as our team representative, regularly meeting with other Global Health Senior Program Assistants providing input and leadership on issues and policies needed for guidance to the Program Assistant community. While working at the Foundation, I strengthened my management and leadership abilities.

With SeaBright, I provided direct support to our Chief Operating Officer as well as our Chief Financial Officer. Within this role, I coordinated over 30 calendars including our C-level for Board of Directors meetings, departmental meetings, and project team meetings. My outputs included presentations for Investor Proposals, Budget Plans, Board of Directors submissions, as well as reports detailing current projects and departmental activities for twelve Senior Vice Presidents. I coordinated international and domestic travel, prepared subsequent expense reports, created and managed our Contract Log, organized company functions, and assisted our CFO with the finance management team’s performance reviews and objectives. Due to the high level of support, my proficiency in discretion and professionalism were upleveled while in this role.

Also held position from Feb 2002 – Feb 2006During my time with Luscher Air, my greatest takeaway was the ability to remain calm under pressure. With many calls from often distressed customers who were excessively warm (or cold), I had to communicate well and often, and keep customers calm. At Luscher, I provided extensive relationship support with customers and service providers through over 30 calls per day. I also managed our commercial and industrial customer database and supported our accounts receivable and legal departments.

Pilot Benefits Group is an insurance brokerage where I worked closely with our agents to create over 200 requests for proposals for insurance carriers, designed company templates for client proposal meetings, produced renewal correspondence, and managed executive calendars. Pilot helped to increase my penchant for triple checking the small details.

As part of my school’s Internship program, I was able to pair my interest in Sports Marketing with my favorite hockey team, the New York Islanders. The role was focused on the fan experience and saw me solving customer complaints, facilitating group events, season ticket holder extras, as well as jumping in wherever extra hands were needed including managing our customer database, and invoicing for playoff tickets. From NYI, I learned to always be thinking of the fan experience (which later translated into customer / vendor / partner, etc.)

My time with Merrill Lynch was my introduction to what it means to work in a fast-paced environment. I acted as a temporary employee and had assignments that saw me working on the trading floor of the World Financial Center (now Brookfield Place) managing dynamic calendars, making extensive international and domestic travel arrangements for the executive team, and preparing travel and expense reports. Another assignment utilized me as a marketing representative for an investment convention, maintaining contracts, and creating correspondence from dictation.