PKEA.US

Resume of Paul Klenk, Executive Assistant

2009-05-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my career Web site! Here you can view and download my resume, and learn more about my career and many talents. I trust you and your clients will find this site useful, and look forward to hearing from you.

CAREER BIOGRAPHY

A career Executive Assistant living in New York City, Paul Klenk has over twenty years experience in office administration, the last fourteen supporting C-level executives at major financial firms. continue

PROFESSIONAL RESUME
Use the menu below the resume to download, print, and view it in full screen.

This resume spans my professional experience from 1997 to present. The period from 1989 and 1997 is summarized in my career biography.

Resources for the Professional EA

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Here are a some books and other resources that have influenced and benefited me in the Executive Assistant chair. I recommend them to any EA who would like to brush up on basics, challenge their thinking, and rise to new levels of performance.

Please feel free to contact me to suggest other resources for this list.

Books

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen
The Effective Executive: The Definite Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, by Peter F. Drucker
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The Official Style Guide Used by the Writers and Editors of the World's Most Authoritative Newspaper, by Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly
The Chicago Manual of Style, by the Staff of The University of Chicago Press
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, and Roger Angell
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by Crossway
Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Manners, Freshly Updated, by Judith Martin
New Complete Guide to Executive Manners, by Letitia Baldridge
True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor, by David Mamet
Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
The Inner Game of Tennis, by W. Timothy Gallwey

Essays

“Politics and the English Language,” by George Orwell

Audio

Proverbs: Wisdom for True Living, a 22-part lecture series by Dr. Timothy J. Keller.

Web resources

LinkedIn: Career networking site. Find old colleagues and get job recommendations.
Monster: Fully-functional job search website.
USPS.gov: Useful search capabilities and little-known postal-related information.
WhitePages: Great for reverse look-ups on phone numbers and addresses. An investigator’s dream.
CitySearch: If it’s in your city, and it’s worth knowing about, it’s probably here.

Design

Graphis Design Annual, by B. Martin Pedersen. Inspiration for graphic design and communicating with images.

Contact

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Excellent professional and personal references are available on request.

Email:

paulklenk@gmail.com

Phone:

212.300.7345

LinkedIn profile: (click logo)

Career | Recent

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Early Years | Temp to Perm | Internet Boom | Recent

MORGAN STANLEY
Klenk received unanimous enthusiastic reviews from the executives he supported as office manager in the IDEAS Practice Area at Morgan Stanley. He was requested by several Executive Directors to work on special projects because of his proven ability to persist in seeing complex tasks through to completion in a challenging environment. Many of his past executive assistant jobs have included a component of office management; this was Klenk’s first experience performing the role full time. He was placed at Morgan by Axion LLC.

AXION LLC

In 2008, Klenk worked as a temporary assistant at AllianceBernstein’s Legal and Compliance department, through Axion LLC. His next assignment with Axion was supporting the CEO of an asset management firm, his fifth C-level executive. Axion received exceptional reviews from both clients, and Klenk still maintains relationships with the individuals he worked with.

CITIGROUP

In October 2005, Klenk was recruited by Citigroup to support his fourth C-level executive, a Chief Credit Officer, two down from Chuck Prince in Global Commercial Risk Management. He quickly established himself among his peers and made strong relationships as his job brought him in contact with the highest levels in the organization. Citigroup identified Klenk as one of their top resources in his area. This extremely busy and demanding job prepared Klenk for future high-level support positions.

In February 2007, Klenk took a new position in Global Wealth Management Operational Risk. He continued his employment with Citigroup until May.

Career | Internet Boom

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Early Years | Temp to Perm | Internet Boom | Recent

MOVE TO NEW YORK

In 1999, Klenk moved to New York City with a ready list of prospects he gained online. HydraWEB immediately offered him a job as Executive and Personal Assistant to the CEO, his second C-level support role. The company was sold in early 2000.

Beginning in 2000, Klenk worked at Renaissance Technologies, assisting the marketing director and later the CFO. After three years, he temped at US Trust. Then his former boss at Renaissance recommended him to Bassini Playfair Wright, where he accepted a position.

Career | Temp to Perm

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Early Years | Temp to Perm | Internet Boom | Recent

REGULAR EMPLOYMENT

While temping at First Bank in Minneapolis (now USBank), the product manager Klenk supported recommended him to a Human Resources director who needed an assistant. This led to his first ‘non-temp’ job supporting a high-level executive. Later, as the receptionist for Fiserv, a bank operations firm, he used his customer service experience and telephone abilities to rebuild historically poor client service (he is often complimented on his telephone skills), and learned the ins and outs of the operation to better direct client calls from the switchboard.

Klenk was recruited by CogenAmerica to his first C-level role, Executive Assistant to the CEO. There he designed the company’s first Web site, and built a company-wide shared database that became indispensable to the staff. He also supported the office manager and Investor Relations.

Career | Early Years

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Early Years | Temp to Perm | Internet Boom | Recent

Since 1989, Paul Klenk has used his many talents to bring value to businesses. His entry into office administration came through his computer skills, self-taught while studying at Bemidji State University in Minnesota. Combined with his page layout and editorial experience as editor of his high school newspaper, these skills gave Klenk immediate marketability.

TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT

On an early temporary job, Klenk revamped United HealthCare’s drug formulary using Quark (with no Quark training or experience), saving the firm countless hours and thousands of dollars. This prompted the firm to stop outsourcing this work and produce it in-house. Other early temp clients included Honeywell and The University of Minnesota.

Klenk increased his range of administrative skills, progressing from office clerk to receptionist to administrative assistant. Temping taught him to take initiative in unfamiliar environments and become productive from day one.

Beyond the EA Role

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I have many skills that add value to business beyond those of an EA. Following are several examples in the publishing disciplines.

The first is this Web site, which features my copywriting and editing, page layout, and Web publishing gifts. It demonstrates my ability to combine many skills to present information and communicate effectively to a professional audience using the latest technology and software.

I originally conceived, constructed, wrote and published this site in one weekend. Like everything I write and design, I carefully polish it over time and add new features.

The New York Times has published five pieces I wrote – humorous observations about life in New York City. The editors hired cartoonist Lars Leetaru to illustrate one of them (left). Competing for an editor’s attention requires one to be selective, speak to a diverse audience, and communicate elegantly and entertainingly in as few words as possible.

“The Everything Bagel”

published May 29, 2006 (second item on the page)

“The Tourists”

published March 19, 2007 (fourth item on the page)

“The Goose”

published December 17, 2007 (fourth item on the page)

“The Lollipop”

published May 5, 2008 (fifth item on the page)

“The Motormouth”

published March 29, 2010 (fifth item on the page)

Feature writing and research is another of my passions. I wrote the photographic essay on Wikipedia about New York’s Village Halloween Parade. Wikipedia content can be edited, rewritten, and even deleted by anyone. My goal was to create a composition too exceptional to invite major rewrites. I am pleased to report that up until three years later it was almost exactly as I originally published it. Editors have given it high praise, and it was even translated for the Hungarian WP, where it was selected as a front page featured article. In addition to writing it, I interviewed the event organizer and exhibitors to check facts, selected all the photographs, and secured agreements from their owners for use under GNU’s Free Documentation License.

“...and then he yelled, SHUFFLE! and the crowd went wild!”

Photo credit: Jim Boden

Credits

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“2Plus” blog design by Dante Araújo and Klodian.

Resume typesetting and original design by Paul Klenk, and embedded courtesy of Scribd. File downloads courtesy of Box.net.

Dave Beckerman’s New York photos (“Manhattan Mall”; “Paradise Clock, Bronx”) used with the permission of the artist. Jim Boden’s parade photo courtesy of Wikipedia under GNU’s Free Documentation License. Graphic from The New York Times‘ “Metropolitan Diary” presented under Fair Use.

Site published using Google’s Blogger. Domain services by GoDaddy.

LinkedIn logo used by permission.