What Does an Executive Assistant Do During a 100-Day Post-Acquisition Plan?

The deal closes on a Friday. By Monday, the operating partner has a value creation plan with 40 initiatives, a CEO who may or may not stay, a lender who wants a compliance certificate within 45 days and an add-on target that wants a call this week. Nobody has built the meeting calendar. Nobody owns the RAID log. The CFO is reconciling three charts of accounts.

A remote executive assistant for private equity and M&A firms fills that gap. The operating partner and the CEO make the decisions. The EA makes sure every decision leaves the room with an owner, a deadline and a follow-up.

This guide breaks the role down phase by phase, with recent data from Bain, BCG, Alvarez & Marsal and McKinsey, a RACI table, an illustrative week at Day 45, the KPIs operating partners track, and what happens to the EA after Day 100.

What Is a 100-Day Plan in Private Equity, and Why Does It Matter Now?

A 100-day plan turns the investment thesis into dated actions and marks the handoff from the deal team to the operating team. It covers the first three months or so after closing: stabilizing the business, confirming the leadership team, setting up reporting for the board and lenders, and launching the value creation plan (VCP) initiatives the deal team underwrote. When the deal combines two businesses, the 100-day plan also carries the first phase of post-merger integration (PMI).

The stakes keep rising:

• Unsold portfolio companies. Bain's Global Private Equity Report 2026 counts roughly 32,000 unsold portfolio companies worth $3.8 trillion.
• Longer holding periods. Almost 40% of PE-owned companies have now sat in portfolios for more than five years.
• Higher growth targets. Bain sums up the new math as "12 is the new 5," meaning a fund must now deliver far more earnings growth to hit its return targets, as InvestmentNews reported.

Cheap debt and multiple expansion no longer carry returns. EBITDA expansion does. The first 100 days are the most controllable stretch of the hold, and three recent findings show how firms treat them:

• Faster deployment. Alvarez & Marsal's European value creation survey of 200 fund investors and portfolio company executives found that 58% of firms now deploy value creation resources within the first 100 days, double the 29% from the year before.
• A credibility window. BCG's The 100-Day Cost Reset in Private Equity argues that the first 100 to 180 days of ownership set the tone with the board, lenders and management for the rest of the hold.
• Higher returns. McKinsey's analysis of practices that reshape PE value creation found that GPs who focus on operational value creation in funds raised after 2020 earn IRRs up to two to three percentage points higher.

More initiatives that launch sooner mean more meetings, more documents and more follow-ups in the same 100 days. Someone has to run that machinery. In most portfolio companies, that person does not exist on Day 1.

Who Owns the 100-Day Plan: the Operating Partner, the CEO or the EA?

The operating partner usually drafts the value creation plan with the CEO and CFO, sets the KPI baseline and flags leadership gaps. The CEO owns delivery. The EA owns the system that keeps both of them on schedule.

A clear split prevents the most common failure in post-acquisition work: decisions that leave the room without an owner. The table below follows the format from our RACI matrix example for assigning task owners:

The pattern matters. The EA appears as "Responsible" on process and "Informed" on judgment. That keeps the role clean for compliance and keeps every decision with the people the fund holds accountable.

What Does an EA Do Between Signing and Closing?

The 100-day plan starts before Day 1. Between signing and closing, the EA builds the scaffolding so the team can work on Monday morning.

Build the Day 1 contact map. The EA compiles one sheet with every leader, board member, lender contact, outside counsel, accountant, quality of earnings (QoE) provider and integration consultant, with time zones and assistants' names. An operating partner who covers five portfolio companies should never have to search an inbox for a lender's phone number.

Set the governance calendar. The EA books the full first-year rhythm before calendars fill: the weekly PMO meeting, the biweekly steering committee, monthly business reviews, the first board meeting (often between Day 60 and Day 90), quarterly lender calls and the compliance certificate due dates from the credit agreement.

Stand up the shared workspace. The EA creates the 100-day plan folder structure in SharePoint or Google Drive, mirrors the deal team's naming conventions and sets permissions with the CFO. The virtual data room checklist from LOI to close that guided diligence becomes the starting index for the post-close workspace.

Prepare the Day 1 communications pack. The CEO and the deal partner write the messages to employees, customers and suppliers. The EA formats them, schedules the town hall, books the room or video link, builds the FAQ document from HR's answers and tracks who has received which message.

Days 1 to 30: How Does an EA Help Stabilize a New Portfolio Company?

The first month centers on stability and information. Leaders want answers to three questions: who decides what, what is the cash position, and which customers and employees are at risk. The EA builds the channels that carry those answers.

Run the PMO cadence. The EA sends the agenda 24 hours before every PMO meeting, pulls status from each workstream lead, takes notes, logs decisions and sends a one-page summary within two hours. Each action carries one owner and one date. A project status report template with RAG ratings works well for the weekly summary, because green, amber and red ratings let the operating partner scan 40 initiatives in two minutes.

Open the RAID log on Day 1. Risks, actions, issues and decisions belong in one place. The EA maintains the log, chases owners for updates and flags any item that turns red. Our RAID log template for tracking project risks shows the column structure.

Support the 13-week cash flow forecast. The CFO owns the forecast. The EA collects the weekly inputs from treasury, accounts receivable and accounts payable, chases late submissions and sends the final version to the operating partner and lender contacts on a fixed day.

Coordinate the leadership assessment. Leadership change shapes the first 100 days. In a study of 126 US buyouts, researchers James Gong and Steve Wu found that 51% of companies replaced their CEO within two years of the LBO announcement, well above the rate at public companies. Whether the plan calls for a new CEO, CFO or CHRO, the EA schedules assessment interviews, coordinates the executive search firm, books reference calls, tracks each candidate's status and prepares offer letter packets for HR and counsel to finalize.

Protect the CEO's calendar. Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria tracked 27 CEOs and found they spent 72% of their work time in meetings, with an average of 37 meetings a week. After an acquisition, that load climbs. The EA applies calendar management rules for executives that the CEO and operating partner agree on: protected blocks for customer visits, a cap on internal meetings, and 30-minute defaults instead of 60.

How Does an EA Support Change Management and Culture in the First 100 Days?

Employees read every signal after an acquisition: a new email domain, a canceled offsite, a closed office door. Anxiety drives attrition, and attrition among key managers can sink an EBITDA bridge faster than any pricing miss. The CHRO and the CEO lead change management. The EA keeps the communication machinery steady.

Run the communication calendar. The EA schedules all-hands meetings, skip-level sessions and site visits so every location hears from leadership in the first 30 days. The EA tracks which teams have met the new leaders and which still wait, and flags the gaps to the CEO each week.

Turn questions into answers. The EA logs every question from town halls and the HR inbox, sorts the questions by theme each week and sends the list to the CHRO. HR writes the answers, and the EA updates the published FAQ. Employees stop guessing when the same question gets the same answer everywhere.

Coordinate pulse surveys. The EA schedules short pulse surveys in Microsoft Forms or Culture Amp at Day 30, Day 60 and Day 90, sends reminders, compiles response rates and routes the results to HR. HR reads and interprets them.

Onboard new executives fast. A new CFO or COO who starts at Day 40 has 60 days to make an impact. The EA builds the new leader's first-month calendar: one-on-ones with every direct report, meetings with key customers and lenders, sessions with the operating partner, and a reading pack with the investment memo summary, the VCP and the latest board pack.

Days 31 to 60: How Does an EA Keep Value Creation Plan Execution on Track?

By the second month, the plan shifts from stabilizing to executing. Pricing, procurement, sales effectiveness, working capital and systems work all run at once. This is where plans slip most often. Alvarez & Marsal's survey shows that firms deploy resources faster than ever. Follow-through still decides the outcome.

Track every initiative to the EBITDA bridge. Each VCP initiative ties to a line on the EBITDA bridge: price increases, procurement savings, headcount changes or new customer revenue. The EA keeps a tracker that shows each initiative's owner, target, current estimate and next milestone, and prepares it for the monthly business review. Together, the tracker and the meeting cadence form the operating rhythm behind EBITDA expansion.

Coordinate procurement and cost work. BCG describes a European discount retailer that built a bottom-up view of about $1.5 billion in spend across 27 million transactions, sorted it into more than 100 subcategories and found more than $110 million in savings across more than 70 initiatives. Work at that scale produces hundreds of supplier calls, quote requests and contract renewals. The EA schedules supplier meetings, tracks renewal dates, files quotes and keeps the supplier management and expense calendar current, so no contract rolls over at the old rate.

Run the management incentive plan logistics. The deal team and counsel design the management incentive plan (MIP) and the rollover equity terms. The EA tracks which managers have received, reviewed and signed their documents in DocuSign, books the explanatory sessions with counsel and keeps the signature log current for the CFO.

Manage the operating partner's portfolio view. Operating partners rarely support one company. Private Equity International's Operating Partners Technology Value Creation Survey 2026 drew 145 responses from operating partners who drive value creation across portfolios. When one operating partner covers four to six companies, one EA can keep a consolidated calendar and action view across all of them, so the partner walks into each call already knowing the open items.

Prepare meeting briefs. Before every steering committee, customer visit or supplier negotiation, the EA prepares a one-page brief: attendees, the last three decisions, open actions and the numbers that matter. Our guide to executive meeting preparation shows the format.

Days 61 to 100: How Does an EA Prepare the First Board Meeting and Lender Reporting?

The last third of the plan turns activity into evidence. The first full board meeting, the first quarterly lender package and the first LP update all land in this window.

Assemble the board pack. The CEO and CFO write the content. The EA builds the pack from a fixed template: agenda, minutes from the last meeting, CEO letter, financial summary, KPI dashboard, 100-day plan scorecard, risk register and resolutions. The EA sets internal deadlines (content due seven business days before the meeting, draft to the operating partner five days before, final pack to directors three days before), uploads the pack to a board portal such as Diligent or BoardEffect and confirms that each director can open it.

Run board logistics. The EA confirms attendance, books travel and rooms, prepares the dial-in, sends calendar holds for the next four meetings and drafts the minutes for counsel or the company secretary to review. After the meeting, the EA sends the action list within 24 hours.

Meet every lender deadline. Credit agreements set dates for financial statements, compliance certificates and covenant calculations. The CFO owns the numbers. The EA keeps the deadline calendar, sends reminders at 15, 7 and 2 days, collects signatures, files each submission and saves the confirmation receipt.

Feed the fund's LP reporting. ILPA's updated Reporting Template now applies to many funds, starting with quarters that end after March 31, 2026. Portfolio companies feed that quarterly reporting. The EA makes sure the company's data reaches the fund's finance team on the agreed date, in the agreed format, every quarter.

Close the 100-day plan. At Day 100, the EA prepares the close-out pack: initiatives completed, initiatives that move into the full-year VCP, open risks, and lessons learned. The CEO and operating partner present it, and the management team takes ownership of the plan from the deal team.

How Does an EA Support Add-On Acquisitions and Post-Merger Integration?

Many platforms buy their first add-on before Day 100. Preqin's buy-and-build research, which surveyed more than 550 senior private equity leaders, calls add-on M&A the breakout growth lever. INSEAD's study of buy-and-build strategies found that the companies it studied stressed starting post-merger integration within the first 100 days of each add-on. CohnReznick reports that top firms integrate key systems within six months of closing.

McKinsey warns in Winning at private-equity integrations that mediocre integration turns potentially transformative deals into slow-growing add-ons. The EA reduces that risk across four stages of PMI administration.

Before signing. The EA sends NDAs from the template counsel approved, tracks signatures and logs every target, banker and broker contact. The EA builds the diligence request list, chases sellers for documents and sets permissions in Datasite, Intralinks or SharePoint. The EA also schedules management presentations, site visits and expert calls across time zones and tracks the IOI and LOI deadlines.

Day 1 for the add-on. The EA copies the platform's 100-day structure: contact map, governance calendar, RAID log and Day 1 communications pack. When the add-on keeps its own brand, the EA runs two-brand town halls. The platform CEO and the add-on founder present together, and the EA prepares one FAQ that covers both workforces, so neither team hears a different story.

Joint calendar integration. Two leadership teams bring two meeting rhythms. The EA merges them into one PMO meeting, one monthly business review and one board reporting cycle. The EA also maps every recurring meeting in the add-on and asks its owner to keep, merge or cancel it. Founders who sold their company often keep old habits, and a shared calendar makes the new rhythm visible.

Systems integration logistics. The CIO and CFO decide the target stack. The EA builds the migration schedule, tracks user access requests, books training sessions for each team and logs every cutover date in the RAID log. When the add-on moves from QuickBooks to NetSuite, or from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365, the EA keeps the dates, the owners and the escalation path in one place.

Repeatable templates turn the second, third and fourth add-ons into routines instead of fire drills.

How Does an EA Handle Confidential Deal Data and Clean-Team Protocols?

A post-close EA sees material non-public information (MNPI) about the company, its lenders and often its next acquisition. Compliance officers and CCOs care about this section more than any other. Build the security handshake before the EA opens a single file.

Day 0 access setup. Give the EA:

• A company email address on the portfolio company's domain.
• Single sign-on through Okta or Microsoft Entra ID.
• A password vault such as 1Password, with shared items scoped per workstream.
• Two-factor authentication on every account, with an authenticator app or hardware key.
• Data room permissions that match the EA's role and expire automatically.

Vendor and tool review. Ask whether each tool the EA uses holds a SOC 2 Type II report, and keep the EA inside approved systems only. Personal email, personal cloud storage and consumer AI tools stay off limits for deal documents.

Clean-team protocols. When the platform buys a competitor, counsel often sets up a clean team, a small group that reviews competitively sensitive information before closing. The EA can maintain the clean-team roster, log each person's access and enforce the folder permissions counsel sets. In most deals, the EA stays outside the clean team itself and handles only the logistics around it.

Code of ethics review. If the EA also supports the fund, have your CCO decide whether the EA counts as an access person under your code of ethics. Our guide on vetting, NDAs and data security for remote EAs covers the full setup.

Which Tools Does a Post-Acquisition EA Use?

A strong EA learns the portfolio company's stack in the first week. These tools come up in most 100-day plans:

AI now runs through most of this work. Alvarez & Marsal found that 63% of respondents use AI in value creation, up from 41% the year before. An EA who drafts meeting summaries with Microsoft Copilot, builds first-draft trackers from transcripts and then checks every line against the source saves hours each week. The EA still owns the accuracy.

What Should an EA Never Own in a 100-Day Plan?

Clear limits protect the company, the fund and the EA. Put them in writing on Day 1.

This split also answers the question compliance teams ask most often. An EA with defined, logged access gives a CCO far less to supervise than an analyst with broad access and vague duties.

What Does Day 45 Look Like for a 100-Day Plan EA? An Illustrative Week

This example is a composite and does not describe a specific client. It shows a typical mid-market deal: a commercial HVAC services platform with $60 million in EBITDA, one operating partner, a new CFO and two add-ons in the pipeline.

Monday morning. The EA sends the PMO agenda at 7 a.m. Eastern and pulls RAG updates from 11 workstream leads. Two items show red: a delayed ERP data migration and a key branch manager's resignation. The EA flags both to the CEO, who calls the branch manager before noon.

Tuesday follow-ups. The EA books three supplier renewal meetings from the procurement tracker, sends the second NDA of the week to an add-on target in Ohio and updates the data room index after the seller uploads 140 files.

Wednesday deadlines. The CFO finishes the monthly lender package. The EA collects the CEO's signature on the compliance certificate, files it with the lender's agent, logs the confirmation and schedules four final-round interviews for the VP of Sales role across two time zones.

Thursday board prep. The EA builds the draft board pack from the template, chases two missing sections and sends the draft to the operating partner on schedule, five business days before the meeting. The EA also sends the CHRO the week's 12 town hall questions, sorted into four themes.

Friday summary. The EA sends the weekly 100-day plan summary: 31 initiatives green, 6 amber and 3 red, each with an owner and a next date. The operating partner reads it on a phone between two other portfolio company calls and needs no follow-up meeting.

No single task in that week needs a deal partner. Without an EA, each one lands on the CEO, the CFO or the operating partner anyway.

How Do Operating Partners Measure an EA's Impact in the First 100 Days?

Track a small set of measures from Week 1. Each one ties the EA's work to the plan's speed.

• Action closure rate. The share of PMO actions that close by their due date. Target: above 85% by Day 60.
• Summary turnaround time. The time from the end of a meeting to the written summary. Target: under two hours.
• Board pack timeliness. Directors receive the pack three business days before every meeting. Target: 100%.
• Lender deadlines met. Every submission arrives on or before its due date. Target: 100%, with no waivers for late reporting.
• Diligence request aging. Open data room requests older than five days. Target: fewer than five at any time.
• Leadership time recovered. The hours each week that the CEO and operating partner no longer spend on scheduling, chasing and formatting. Measure it with a calendar audit at Day 0 and Day 60.

Report these numbers in the Day 100 close-out pack. They make the case for keeping the EA through the full hold, which Bain now puts at about seven years for exited assets.

What Happens to the EA After Day 100?

The 100-day plan ends, but the operating rhythm it builds should not. Most firms choose one of three paths.

The EA stays with the CEO. The PMO cadence becomes the monthly operating review, and the EA keeps running board cycles, lender reporting and the next add-on. This path fits platforms with an active buy-and-build plan, because the EA reuses every template the team built.

The EA moves with the operating partner. The EA hands the company's routines to an internal coordinator and starts the next 100-day plan at the fund's newest acquisition. The fund builds one tested playbook and runs it again with each deal.

The EA grows into a PMO coordinator role. When the VCP carries heavy project work, the EA takes over the full initiative tracker and reporting. If you need that capacity from the start, a dedicated project coordination assistant for multi-workstream plans can own the PMO full time while the EA supports the CEO.

Decide the path by Day 75, so the transition shows up in the close-out pack and no routine falls through the gap.

Should the Fund or the Portfolio Company Hire the EA?

Both models work. The right one depends on how many companies the operating partner covers.

The portfolio company hires. The EA works for the CEO, sits on the company's payroll and stays after the first 100 days. This fits a platform company with add-ons in its pipeline.

The fund hires. The EA supports the operating partner across several portfolio companies on the fund's payroll. This fits a lean operating team or a first-time fund. Many funds share one full-time EA across two to four partners. See how an executive assistant supports partners at a venture capital firm in a similar multi-company role.

Either way, keep one rule: the EA reports to one person who sets priorities. Split reporting lines produce split calendars.

If the plan needs a broader strategic role, compare the options in our guide on a virtual executive assistant vs a chief of staff. A chief of staff often leads workstreams. An EA runs the system around them.

How Much Does It Cost to Add a Remote EA to a 100-Day Plan?

Deal teams usually weigh three ways to cover the administrative layer of a 100-day plan:

1. Borrow time from finance. This costs nothing upfront but slows the CFO's team at its busiest moment, just as lender reporting and the first close land.
2. Extend the integration consultants. This keeps continuity, but the cost grows every week the plan runs.
3. Add a dedicated EA. This gives the plan a full-time owner for its operating rhythm at a fraction of either cost, and the EA stays when the consultants leave.

Exec Assistants recruits remote executive assistants from the Philippines and South Africa for the third option. You pay a one-time recruitment fee of $1,997, then hire and pay your EA directly, with no monthly agency markup.

Typical monthly salaries in US dollars:

Most firms hire at the mid or senior level for 100-day plan work, because the role calls for board pack experience, discretion with MNPI and comfort with lender deadlines. Our executive assistant pricing page explains what the fee covers.

Time zone coverage. South Africa runs six to seven hours ahead of New York, so a South African EA covers the US morning and finishes overnight tasks before your day starts. EAs in the Philippines regularly work US business hours on a night shift. Our guide to hiring an executive assistant in the Philippines explains how that works in practice.

How Do You Hire an EA for Your Next 100-Day Plan?

Start the search before closing, so the EA can build the governance calendar before Day 1.

1. Define the scope. List the workstreams from the RACI table that the EA will own.
2. Set the access plan. Agree on systems, permissions and the compliance review with your CFO and CCO.
3. Review the shortlist. You receive pre-vetted candidates with finance, board or deal support experience.
4. Test with a real task. Ask finalists to build a one-page PMO summary from meeting notes, or to format a board pack section.
5. Run a 14-day ramp. Follow our guide on how to onboard an outsourced executive assistant to move the EA from calendar and inbox to full PMO ownership within two weeks.

Closing a deal this quarter? Tell us about your next 100-day plan, and we'll show you candidates who have run board cycles, lender calendars and deal data rooms.

Book a free discovery call

Frequently Asked Questions

What does an executive assistant do in a private equity 100-day plan?

The EA runs the operating rhythm of the plan. That covers the PMO meeting cadence, action tracker, RAID log, board pack assembly, lender deadline calendar, leadership hiring logistics, MIP signature tracking and data rooms for add-on acquisitions. The operating partner and CEO keep every decision.

When should a portfolio company hire an EA after an acquisition?

Hire between signing and closing if you can. An EA who starts before Day 1 can book the first-year governance calendar, set up the shared workspace and prepare the Day 1 communications pack, which saves the leadership team its most chaotic week.

Can one EA support several portfolio companies?

Yes. An EA who works for the operating partner can keep one consolidated calendar and action view across four to six companies. Each company still needs a named internal owner for its own PMO.

How does an EA help with post-merger integration of an add-on?

The EA manages the NDA log and data room before signing. After closing, the EA copies the platform's 100-day structure, merges the two leadership calendars, runs two-brand town halls and tracks every systems cutover date in the RAID log.

Is a remote EA safe for confidential deal information?

Yes, with the right setup. Give the EA a company email, single sign-on, a password vault, two-factor authentication and scoped data room permissions. Have your CCO review the access plan and decide whether the EA counts as an access person under your code of ethics.

What happens to the EA after the 100-day plan ends?

Most firms choose one of three paths. The EA stays with the CEO to run the ongoing operating rhythm, moves with the operating partner to the next acquisition, or grows into a PMO coordinator role for a heavy VCP.

Sources

• Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026
• InvestmentNews, Private equity revival accelerates but the next winners will be operational outperformers and Triple shock kills private equity's second consecutive revival attempt
• Alvarez & Marsal, European value creation survey
• BCG, The 100-Day Cost Reset in Private Equity
• McKinsey, Unlocking full potential: Five practices reshaping PE value creation and Winning at private-equity integrations
• Private Equity International, Operating Partners Technology Value Creation Survey 2026
• ILPA, Updated ILPA Templates Hub
• Preqin, Buy-and-build gains ground in private equity
• INSEAD Knowledge, How private equity firms can ace buy-and-build
• CohnReznick, How top PE firms are winning with add-on acquisitions
• James Gong and Steve Wu, CEO Turnover in Private Equity Sponsored Leveraged Buyouts
• Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria, How CEOs Manage Time, Harvard Business Review