Maria D'Souza

Executive Support Officer(PA) to Director of Commissioning & Procurement (C&P) Services
London Borough of Croydon (FTC)
• Support to ed Director along with eight Heads of Service and their wider team members
• Project support to Commissioning & Procurement Team, Adult Social Health Care, Brokerage & Placements
• HR admin support with recruitment process and follow through with HR Department

In addition to supporting the C&P team, was deployed to Ssupport to Brokerage team based on recommendations from the Brokerage Manager and Heads of Services.

Brokerage Support Officer March 2020-August 2020
What systems/IT packages have you used during this period?
As part of the Council’s Covid-19 response I have worked as a Brokerage Support Officer to support the Brokerage Team to provide a high quality service commissioning Domiciliary and LIFE packages of care to Older People and People with Disabilities and Mental Health in the Community.
I have commissioned Meals on Wheels for residents. I have Restarted, Suspended and Ended packages of care. I have dealt with all enquiries to the Brokerage Email Inbox, responding to a range of professionals regarding clients and their packages of care.
I have also dealt with all telephone enquiries to Brokerage from Social Workers, Staff at Croydon University Hospital and other Hospitals in Greater London as well as from Providers and other Stakeholders and I have developed an in-depth understanding of the responsibilities of the role.
As well supporting the day to day operating of the service I have contributed to the systems for recording and managing the work of the Brokerage Team by entering completed work onto the logging forms for both Community and LIFE packages of care.

August 2019-December 2019
Executive Support Officer (PA) to Director of Facilities & Support Services and Director of Public Health
London Borough of Croydon
• Duties similar to the Director of Council Homes Districts & Regeneration and Director of Economic Growth

May 2019 - July 2019
Executive Support Officer (PA)to Director of Council Homes Districts & Regeneration and Director of Economic Growth
London Borough of Croydon

• Managing Director’s calendar, arranging conference calls, booking meeting rooms, scheduling internal and external meetings and rescheduling when necessary
• Logging, follow up and drafting responses to MP, Councillor enquires and closing the same on the CRM system
• Following up on responses to Freedom of Information requests
• Directing enquiries of the Director and division requiring a specialist reply or response to those able to respond on behalf of the Director or Division- tracking completion of the response and closing the enquiry on CRM system
• Liaising with the Chief Executive’s Office and Divisional Leadership Team to ensure that the Director is involved in and prepared for all meetings
• Assist with Board meeting and distribute papers as necessary.
• Preparing and circulating Minutes of meetings and ensuring key action items are noted and acted upon.
• Following up with HoS on behalf of Director for completion of Business related matters
• Providing “ front of house” welcome and positive experience and impression for the Director and Division
• Raising Purchase orders
• Maintaining an alert system for upcoming deadlines on incoming requests and events
• Composing and drafting outgoing emails on behalf of the Director
• Compiling, amending and formatting quarterly Councillor Bulletins
• Acquiring in-depth knowledge of the Director’s area in order to participate effectively at Divisional Leadership Team meetings.
• Working collaboratively with all internal and external stakeholders

Office Manager & EA to CEO & Chairman-Executive Management Office

Managed external contacts for CEO and kept track of periodic communication needed for priority contacts
• Researched, proposed and implemented vendor services to decrease costs to organization
• Developed and maintained an alert system for upcoming deadlines on incoming requests and events
• Supported the human resources department in the annual employee review process to manage performance merit increases
• Created expense reports, budgets and filing systems
• Conducted research to prepare, gather and proof briefing materials, agendas and decks for all executive-level meetings
• Managed the CEO’s complex and frequently changing travel arrangements and coordinated the pre-planning of trips
• Successfully followed up on key business matters with Heads of Departments on behalf of the CEO
• Efficiently carried out daily tasks as well as ensured the team achieved completing their task
• Distributed company-wide announcements, booked conference rooms and coordinated catering for Board meetings, annual staff development forum
• Coordinated dealer visitations, company special events and other employee morale functions
• Greeted visitors entering the office, and acted as gatekeeper, ensuring that all visitors had meetings booked
• Processed travel expenses and reimbursements
• Located and attached appropriate files to incoming correspondence requiring replies
• Developed and maintained an internal client filing system
• Frequently used word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation software
• Assisted with team building initiatives and overall support for maintenance of organizational culture and employee morale
• Facilitated organized record retrieval and access by maintaining filing system
• Reduced overheads by taking on more responsibility for creative and administrative projects
• Composed and drafted all outgoing correspondence and reports
• Managed executive calendar and coordinated weekly project team meetings
• Managed business travel arrangements, hotel bookings for Executive management
• Prepared and updated Management department policies and procedures which was subject to annual review by Internal auditors
• Coordinated with compliance team to ensure submission of timely disclosures
• Assistant Board Secretary with preparation for Board meetings, AGM's
• Approved expenses for the department
• Prepared reference, recommendation & concern letters
• Attending to CEO's personal, non-company related work

Providing Assistant to the Partners across all functions in the firm
Supervising the Administration staff
Purchase of all office equipments and supplies
Managing the operations of the HR department prior to the HR Manager's recruitment
Assisting the accounts with the day to day firm operations when requested for
Planning and excution of social events for the firm and Career fairs at AUK & GUST University
Arranging meetings, travel schedules, hotel bookings for top management
Responsible for the Firm's independence and Ethics reporting
Processing documents for Request for proposals thru banks for bid bonds, thru insurance firms etc

Planned the Division's presentation, designing various risk management and credit review formats as part of documents for the credit policy of the bank and other functions of the Division

Responsibilities included planning, scheduling and organizing meetings with the Division and Deparment Heads.

Co-ordinate the department's internal/external communications and correspondence, order processing (Quotation, invoicing, delivery order, credit note). Preparing weekly and monthly sales and stock reports for Management review

Scheduled and maintained calendar of appointments, meetings and travel itineraries. Lead New employee orientation and provided in house training to secretarial employees and sales staff on new software application. Established and retained excellet working relationships with customers and employees.

Progressively involved in 2 life cycles of testing/introduction and review phase of the Automated Sales Invoicing system since its implementation

Handled all client correspondence and invoicing. Update and production of weekly and monthly sales report. Coordinated the purchase of new office equipment and phase-in process

Provision and planning of ticket stock of the respective airlines to the front desk reservation staff. Reporting ticket sales to airlines on a monthly basis.

Maintained a corporate client database. Setting up travel itinerary for corporate clients and group tours.

Coordinated daily operations and office tasks such as correspondence, staff schedules, minutes of the management meetings. Provided support to the managers of Sales department and Marketing department.

Prepared and maintained department information, including timesheets, expense reports, invoice payments