Chief of Staff to CEO

Description

POSITION SUMMARY

The Chief of Staff serves as a strategic and operational extension of the CEO of Agility Holdings Group, LLC (“AHG”). The role helps the CEO maintain visibility across the portfolio, strengthen accountability among business-unit leaders, organize enterprise priorities, vet significant recommendations, and coordinate initiatives that span multiple companies or functions. 

This is not an administrative Chief of Staff position and is not intended to replace the leadership of any business unit. Each business-unit leader remains directly accountable for the strategy, people, operations, financial performance, and results of his or her business. 

The Chief of Staff becomes deeply familiar with each business, challenges assumptions, identifies risks and gaps, connects issues across the portfolio, and brings the CEO clear facts, sound analysis, and well-developed recommendations. The role supports decentralized leadership while improving enterprise visibility, organization, coordination, and follow-through. 

A significant objective of the position is leadership development. Over time, the Chief of Staff should gain sufficient operating exposure and responsibility to be considered for leadership of a business unit or other major operating organization. 

REPORTS TO

Chief Executive Officer-Agility Holdings Group

Core Role Philosophy

The holding company operates through strong business-unit leadership. Business-unit leaders remain accountable for running their businesses; the Chief of Staff does not replace that accountability. 

Instead, the Chief of Staff provides the CEO with an additional layer of visibility, organization, analysis, coordination, challenge, oversight, follow-through, and enterprise perspective. The role helps ensure that decentralized leadership does not result in fragmented execution or limited visibility at the holding-company level. 

The Chief of Staff should understand enough detail to know when a business is performing well, when an initiative is drifting, when an assumption should be challenged, and when the CEO needs to become involved. The role should consistently help answer: What is happening across the businesses, why is it happening, what requires attention, and what should we do about it?

Primary Role Objectives

• Maintain clear visibility across all business units. 
• Strengthen accountability without taking ownership away from business-unit leaders. 
• Organize the holding company’s major priorities and management cadence. 
• Vet significant recommendations before they reach the CEO for decision. 
• Identify issues, risks, and opportunities across the portfolio. 
• Improve communication and coordination between business units. 
• Ensure portfolio-wide initiatives have appropriate ownership and follow-through. 
• Coordinate special projects spanning multiple businesses or functions. 
• Improve the quality and speed of executive decision-making. 
• Identify opportunities to leverage shared capabilities across the portfolio.
• Reduce the CEO’s need to personally coordinate routine cross-business matters. 
• Develop the operating experience necessary to potentially lead a business unit in the future. 

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

1. CEO Leverage

Serve as a trusted extension of the CEO across the holding company.

• Develop a deep understanding of the CEO’s priorities and decision framework. 
• Maintain awareness of significant developments across each business. 
• Help determine which matters require CEO involvement. 
• Prepare the CEO for important meetings and decisions. 
• Organize significant information coming from multiple business units.
• Attend selected meetings alongside or on behalf of the CEO. 
• Follow up on important CEO commitments and decisions. 
• Identify emerging issues before they require urgent CEO intervention. 
• Help prevent routine organizational issues from consuming CEO attention. 

The Chief of Staff should increasingly be able to tell the CEO what is happening, what the business-unit leader recommends, how the Chief of Staff assesses the matter, and what the CEO needs to decide. 

2.   Business-Unit Oversight and Visibility

Assist the CEO in maintaining appropriate oversight of each business without assuming responsibility for operating that business. Develop a detailed understanding of business strategy, financial and operating performance, customers, major initiatives, organizational capacity, technology priorities, material legal and compliance matters, competitive developments, risks, and growth opportunities. 

• Review business-unit performance with the CEO and business-unit leadership. 
• Understand the drivers behind material variances and identify trends requiring attention. 
• Challenge assumptions when appropriate. 
• Ensure major commitments have clear owners and timelines. 
• Follow up on matters requiring additional action. 
• Help distinguish normal operating issues from matters requiring holding-company involvement. 

The objective is visibility and accountability, not centralized management.

3.   Business-Unit Leadership Accountability

Business-unit leaders remain directly responsible for business performance. The Chief of Staff reinforces that accountability while helping those leaders become more effective. 

• Ensure agreed objectives are clearly documented. 
• Track major commitments and monitor progress against key priorities. 
• Identify missed commitments or deteriorating performance. 
• Understand the reasons behind performance gaps. 
• Help surface solutions and recovery plans. 
• Provide the CEO with an independent perspective when appropriate. 

4.    Holding Company Operating Rhythm

Help create and manage a consistent management cadence across the portfolio, including leadership meetings, business-unit operating reviews, monthly financial reviews, quarterly business reviews, annual and strategic planning, capital-allocation reviews, KPI reviews, major initiative reviews, and board preparation. 

Ensure these forums produce clear decisions, defined ownership, specific commitments, measurable outcomes, and appropriate follow-up. The Chief of Staff should also guard against unnecessary meeting proliferation and reporting bureaucracy.

5.    Portfolio Performance and Operating Intelligence

Work with finance and business-unit leaders to develop a concise holding-company view of revenue, profitability, cash generation, growth, customer trends, sales productivity, operating performance, staffing, technology performance, major risks, strategic initiatives, and capital requirements.

• Maintain a concise CEO-level portfolio dashboard. 
• Compare businesses where comparisons are meaningful. 
• Identify unusual performance trends and surface emerging opportunities or risks. 
• Connect financial performance with operational drivers. 
• Ensure the CEO understands both results and causes. 
• Translate reporting into implications, options, and recommended next steps. 

6.     Vetting Significant Recommendations

Help review and challenge significant proposals involving capital investment, hiring, acquisitions, technology, AI and automation, organizational changes, new products or markets, major contracts, strategic partnerships, pricing, cost reductions, significant vendors, and major operational changes. 

The business-unit or functional leader remains responsible for developing the recommendation. The Chief of Staff determines whether it is sufficiently developed for CEO consideration by testing the problem statement, recommended course, alternatives, financial impact, assumptions, risks, dependencies, resources, consequences of inaction, success measures, and the specific decision required. 

7.     Cross-Business Special Projects

Coordinate projects that span multiple business units or do not naturally belong to one business leader. Depending on the initiative, the Chief of Staff may serve as project leader, executive coordinator, holding-company representative, facilitator, escalation point, or organizer of decision-making and accountability.

• Shared technology, data, AI, or automation initiatives. 
• Consolidation of common processes, shared services, or vendors. 
• Cross-company sales opportunities and strategic partnerships. 
• Cost-transformation and enterprise reporting programs. 
• Regulatory, compliance, or enterprise-risk initiatives affecting several businesses. 
• Acquisition integration, new platform development, or organizational redesign. 
• New business opportunities involving multiple portfolio companies. 

The Chief of Staff should not automatically perform the functional work. The role is to ensure the appropriate leaders and teams are aligned, decisions are made, ownership is clear, and execution remains on track.

8.      Cross-Business Coordination

Identify opportunities for collaboration involving shared customers, distribution, technology, vendors, data, marketing, recruiting, finance, legal, compliance, procurement, operations, real estate, or administrative services. 

The Chief of Staff should also recognize when businesses should remain independent. Shared services and standardization should be pursued because they improve results, not simply because centralization is possible.

9.      Technology, AI, and Automation Oversight

Technology leaders and business-unit leaders remain responsible for developing and implementing technology, AI, and automation solutions. The Chief of Staff is not the company’s technology executive or AI program manager, but should maintain significant visibility into major initiatives affecting the portfolio.

• Understand the business case, problem being solved, expected costs and benefits, and organizational impact. 
• Challenge timelines and assumptions. 
• Identify cross-business opportunities and redundant investments. 
• Help determine whether an initiative should remain business-specific or become an enterprise capability.
• Monitor major milestones and evaluate whether expected benefits are realized. 

Functional leaders build the solution. The Chief of Staff helps the CEO determine whether the company is solving the right problem, investing appropriately, and achieving the expected business result.

10.     Human Resources and Organizational Oversight

Human Resources and business-unit leaders remain responsible for people strategy and organizational execution. The Chief of Staff but should maintain visibility into important organizational matters. 

• Leadership changes and succession planning. 
• Workforce planning and organizational structure. 
• Executive recruiting, compensation issues, and talent gaps. 
• Retention, leadership development, and major employee initiatives. 

HR develops the programs and recommendations. The Chief of Staff helps vet them through the lens of enterprise strategy and business performance and helps the CEO understand their portfolio-wide implications. 

11.     Legal, Compliance, and Risk

Participate with the CEO, Chief Legal Officer, business-unit leaders, and other executives in appropriate discussions involving material contracts, regulatory matters, compliance, litigation, corporate governance, strategic partnerships, significant transactions, and enterprise risk. 

Understand significant legal and risk matters sufficiently to evaluate their business implications. Certain highly sensitive matters should appropriately remain directly between the CEO and Chief Legal Officer.

12.     Capital Allocation and Investment Decisions

Develop a strong understanding of how capital is deployed across the portfolio. Assist the CEO in evaluating growth investments, technology investments, hiring, acquisitions, new business opportunities, major capital expenditures, cost-reduction opportunities, and business-unit funding priorities. 

The Chief of Staff is not necessarily the final financial authority, but should help ensure capital requests are supported by clear assumptions, expected returns, risks, alternatives, and measurable outcomes.

13.    Leadership Development and Business-Unit Readiness

A central objective of the role is to develop the Chief of Staff into a broader operating executive. The expected progression is from understanding businesses, to evaluating them, to helping improve them, to owning significant business outcomes, and ultimately to running a business.

• Lead a major cross-company initiative or acquisition integration. 
• Own a new business initiative, revenue opportunity, operating plan, or defined P&L. 
• Develop a business plan and manage a budget. 
• Lead a team and make resource-allocation decisions. 
• Present performance to the CEO or board. 
• Assume temporary responsibility for a business or major operating area when appropriate. 

 Other duties as assigned.

What We Offer:

Competitive Compensation

Benefits:

• 401(k) retirement 
• Medical insurance 
• Dental insurance 
• Vision insurance 
• Life insurance  
• Paid time off (PTO)

Agility Holdings Group provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants, without regard to unlawful considerations of or discrimination against race, religion, creed, color, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition or characteristics, marital status, or any other classification prohibited by applicable local, state, or federal laws. Agility Holdings Group may obtain a 'consumer report' about you from a consumer reporting agency for employment purposes. A 'consumer report’ is a background screening report that may contain information regarding your criminal history, driving history, and information about you.