Director of Presidential Operations and Board Relations

Job Title: Director of Presidential Operations and Board Relations

Location: Chicago, IL (hybrid)

Job Type: Fulltime

Position Summary

• The Director of Presidential Operations and Board Relations serves as a key member of the Office of the President and provides high-level operational, governance, and administrative leadership in support of the President and the Board of Trustees. This role is responsible for ensuring the effective coordination of presidential operations, board governance activities, trustee engagement, briefing materials, meeting preparation, follow-up systems, and cross-functional execution related to institutional priorities.
• The Director serves as a central point of coordination between the Office of the President, Board of Trustees, Cabinet members, General Counsel, and other internal and external stakeholders. This position requires exceptional judgment, discretion, organizational discipline, political acumen, and the ability to manage complex, confidential, and time-sensitive matters with professionalism and precision.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Presidential Operations and Executive Support

• Manage and strengthen the operational systems, workflows, and follow-up processes of the Office of the President.
• Coordinate preparation for presidential meetings, including briefing materials, agendas, background documents, talking points, and follow-up items.
• Track commitments, decisions, deliverables, and action items resulting from presidential, Cabinet, board, and senior leadership meetings.
• Support the President in maintaining timely responsiveness to key internal and external stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Senior Executive Assistant to ensure the President’s calendar, meeting flow, materials, and priorities are aligned.
• Anticipate operational needs of the President and ensure appropriate preparation, coordination, and follow-through.
• Assist with the coordination of special projects and presidential initiatives requiring cross-divisional collaboration.

Board Relations and Governance Support

• Serve as the primary operational lead for Board of Trustees coordination, logistics, materials, and governance support.
• Manage the annual board and committee calendar in coordination with the President, Board Chair, Committee Chairs, General Counsel, and Cabinet leadership.
• Coordinate board and committee meeting preparation, including agenda development, materials collection, briefing documents, presentations, and follow-up.
• Ensure board materials are accurate, timely, professionally prepared, and aligned with institutional priorities and governance expectations.
• Manage the board portal and support trustee access to materials, meeting schedules, and relevant governance documents.
• Coordinate trustee communications, follow-up items, onboarding materials, and engagement logistics.
• Support preparation for executive sessions, board retreats, committee meetings, and special board meetings.
• Partner with General Counsel to ensure governance processes, records, and practices are aligned with institutional bylaws, policies, and board expectations.
• Maintain a clear system for tracking board requests, trustee follow-up, governance deadlines, and action items.

Strategic Coordination and Institutional Alignment

• Support alignment between presidential priorities, board agendas, Cabinet work, and institutional strategic priorities.
• Coordinate with Cabinet members to ensure timely submission of materials, updates, reports, and decision items for presidential and board review.
• Help translate institutional priorities into clear meeting agendas, briefing documents, follow-up plans, and operational workflows.
• Support disciplined execution across the Office of the President by ensuring that key matters are documented, tracked, and advanced.
• Identify gaps in process, communication, or follow-through and recommend improvements to strengthen office effectiveness.

Communications and Stakeholder Coordination

• Coordinate with Marketing and Communications on presidential messages, board communications, remarks, talking points, and institutional updates as needed.
• Support the preparation of correspondence, acknowledgments, trustee communications, and other executive-level written materials.
• Ensure that communications from the Office of the President are timely, accurate, polished, and appropriately aligned with tone, audience, and institutional priorities.
• Exercise discretion and sound judgment in handling confidential, sensitive, and high-stakes information.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of five to seven years of progressively responsible experience in executive administration, board relations, governance support, higher education administration, nonprofit leadership, public administration, or a related field.
• Experience supporting a president, CEO, board, cabinet-level executive, or senior leadership team strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex operations, confidential matters, high-level meetings, and executive workflows.
• Strong writing, editing, organizational, and project coordination skills.
• Excellent judgment, discretion, diplomacy, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively with trustees, senior executives, faculty, staff, external partners, and other high-level stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, anticipate needs, and maintain professionalism under pressure.
• Proficiency with board portals, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, project management tools, calendar systems, and presentation platforms preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong understanding of executive office operations and governance processes.
• Ability to manage confidential and sensitive information with the highest level of discretion.
• Exceptional organizational and follow-through skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to synthesize information and prepare concise, high-quality briefing materials.
• Ability to manage ambiguity, competing priorities, and fast-moving institutional needs.
• Strong political acumen and ability to navigate complex relationships.
• Service-oriented mindset with a high standard for professionalism, responsiveness, and excellence.
• Ability to build trust and credibility with senior leaders, trustees, and colleagues across the institution.
• Capacity to anticipate problems, propose solutions, and improve systems.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• This position may supervise or provide functional direction to administrative staff, student workers, temporary staff, or project-based support within the Office of the President, as assigned.

Working Conditions

• This position requires a high level of availability, responsiveness, and flexibility due to the nature of presidential and board support. Some evening or weekend work may be required for board meetings, presidential events, retreats, commencement, or other institutional activities.

HR Classification

• This is a professional/exempt position requiring independent judgment, discretion, high-level coordination, and regular interaction with executive leadership and members of the Board of Trustees.