The real one — not the public number, not the press contact, not the office line. The one that rings in the middle of the night when something genuinely matters. The one that reaches the person directly, without mediation or protocol.
They have this because the principal gave it to them. Because the principal trusts them with the architecture of their life — the schedule, the travel, the access, the knowledge of who gets returned and who does not.
The executive assistant to a UHNWI principal is not a support function. They are a power function. And the industry that serves the ultra-wealthy has largely failed to recognise this.
What the EA Actually Manages
The travel programme for a principal flying 300 hours per year requires continuous management — not the booking of individual flights, but the orchestration of a schedule that moves through multiple jurisdictions, multiple time zones, and multiple operational requirements simultaneously.
The aircraft booking. The ground transfers in the arrival city. The hotel or villa, briefed on arrival specifics. The medical requirements, if any, communicated to the relevant parties at each destination. The security protocol for the movement between the aircraft and the vehicle and the building.
This is not administration. It is logistics at the level of military coordination.
The EA who does this well — who anticipates rather than reacts, who has the relationships with operators that get problems solved before they surface, who knows the principal’s preferences at a level of granularity that takes years to develop — is irreplaceable.
How the Service Industry Gets This Wrong
Every platform, concierge service, and operator that serves the ultra-wealthy should be managing its primary relationship with the principal’s EA, not with the principal directly.
The principal’s time is the most protected resource in the system. Every interruption to it — every call they have to take, every decision they have to make, that should have been handled by the infrastructure around them — is a failure.
The operators who understand this build their relationships with the EA first. They know the preferences before the booking arrives. They solve problems before they become calls. They operate as an extension of the EA’s management of the principal’s world.
The operators who do not understand this treat the EA as a gatekeeper to be navigated rather than a partner to be served.
The Hype Luxury Relationship Model
At Hype Luxury, our Godds Club relationship model is designed around this reality.
The dedicated relationship manager knows the EA as well as they know the principal. The preferences — aircraft configuration, ground handling protocols, dietary requirements, security specifications — are maintained in the relationship, not reassembled at each booking.
Because the EA’s job is hard enough.
The operator’s job is to make it easier.
The person who manages the schedule manages the access. Treat them accordingly.
