Executive Secretary

Position description

EFA is looking for an EXECUTIVE SECRETARY to coordinate the various activities of the Association. Her/His role will be to manage the administration of the Association, to facilitate the strategic and operational decision-making and its implementation, to document and update the processes in order to ensure continuity, and to contribute to the operations and to the continuous quality improvement of the current activities of the Association.

Since its establishment in 1974, the European Finance Association (EFA) has had a major impact on the academic finance research community in Europe and beyond. EFA’s mission is to foster a professional society for academics, practitioners, and doctoral students in the greater field of Finance, who are interested in research areas such as financial management and financial theory along with their application. EFA serves its community of members based in Europe and elsewhere in the world as an evolving professional network for the exchange of ideas, expertise, news and knowledge in Finance at the international level. EFA is an international non-profit association registered in Belgium with about 2,500 members. Members are usually academics, researchers and students of finance in business schools, universities and research institutions.

EFA organizes an annual conference for about 700 participants, a Doctoral Tutorial for 8 finance PhDs and publishes a peer-reviewed academic journal – the Review of Finance with Oxford University Press. For more information on EFA activities, please visit the website: www.european-finance.org.

The job position implies a 60% full time job (i.e. 3 days per week, 7 hours per day, or other flexible repartition), with flexibility to work from home and involves some travel for institutional activities of EFA in accordance with EFA’s policies. The distribution of the activities is not regular throughout the year, but peaks around the Annual Meeting in late August and other events (such as interim meetings). Hence the EFA Executive Secretary is given the flexibility to allocate her/his working time so as to compensate periods of heavy workload with periods of minor activity.

Key responsibilities:

• Act as the central point of contact of the Association, for the members, Executive Committee, sponsors, publisher, and other parties;
• Be responsible for the general administration and day-to-day management of the Association including regulatory and statutory matters and membership fees;
• Send and respond to general correspondence with members concerning the Membership, Annual Meetings, General Assembly, Elections and Review of Finance;
• Support the Executive Committee (Board of Directors), Nominations Committee, Audit Committee and attend meetings, provide ad-hoc support for as required;
• Support Chair and meet regularly, organize and attend the Executive Committee meetings, draft agenda, send invitations, schedule online meetings, collate reports, take and issue minutes;
• Support the President of the Association, organize and attend the General Assembly, send invitations to Members, prepare presentation slides, agenda, check quorum, count votes, draft and issue minutes;
• Support the Conference Manager with the organization of the Annual Meeting and Doctoral Events and attend in person;
• Support the Doctoral Tutorial Chairs with the administration and communications;
• Support the Review of Finance Editorial Team with book-keeping and communications;
• Prepare supporting documents, statistics, and presentations, as required, and draft, circulate, and file the Minutes of the Association meetings, as stipulated;
• Be responsible for the book-keeping of the Association, including invoice management and banking, in collaboration with the Accountant and support preparation of financial reports for the Audit and Executive Committees and General Assembly;
• Oversee the financial affairs of the Association in collaboration with the Association Treasurer;
• Manage and maintain the membership process and manage the contact database;
• Manage and maintain the Association website and act as a central depository of information for all Association documents and publications;
• Facilitate networking opportunities for members through social media and other web-based tools in compliance with GDPR;
• Manage the annual elections following the approved procedures;
• Prepare amendments and updates to the Association Statutes, as well as Association bank documents, according to Belgian legislative requirements for international not-for-profit associations;
• Working in the office one day per week and participation in monthly EIASM staff meetings.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent;
• Experience in a non-for-profit organisation or a university setting preferred/desirable;
• Organisational and management skills;
• Book-keeping, invoice management;
• Social and communication skills;
• Strong IT skills: Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) web administration, apps, automation, digital transformation, social media;
• Flexible, motivated, result driven and proactive;
• Fluency in written and oral English and proficiency in at least one other European language desirable (French or Dutch particularly helpful);
• Resident of Belgium.

Benefits:

EFA offers attractive employment conditions and benefits, commensurate with the experience of the candidate.

Starting date:

The successful candidate is expected to start in early July 2025.

Application instructions

Please send your CV with a cover letter via e-mail to Professor Jerome Chabanne-Rive, EIASM Executive Director ([email protected]), by no later than 10th June 2025. Only candidates whose profile match the job requirements will be contacted. Interviews will take place during the second fortnight of May and early June 2025.

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