Bonnie Low-Kramen (born July 14, 1957 in Kearny NJ, USA) is an American author, workplace expert, public speaker, and president and CEO of Ultimate Assistant Training & Consulting Inc.[1] She holds a B.A. degree in English and Theater from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Bonnie Low-Kramen
Born
Bonnie Joyce Low

July 14, 1957
Kearny, New Jersey U.S.A.
NationalityAmerican
Known forAuthor, speaker, corporate consultant
PartnerRobert Sanders
Websitehttps://www.bonnielowkramen.com/

Career edit

CEO and co-founder edit

For 25 years, Low-Kramen worked as the personal assistant to Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis and actor Louis Zorich.

In 1996 she co-founded New York Celebrity Assistants (NYCA)[2] a professional networking association for celebrity assistants, alongside assistants to Morgan Freeman and Marlo Thomas. She was President of the NYCA for two years, from 1997 to 1999.

In 2004, she founded Ultimate Assistant Training & Consulting Inc, and In 2011 she launched the 'Be the Ultimate Assistant' (BTUA) workshop, one of the first interactive courses to train executive and personal assistants. BTUA training has been taught in the United States, London, Paris, and Brussels.

Writing edit

Low-Kramen's book Be the Ultimate Assistant: A celebrity assistant's secrets to working with any high-powered employer[3] is an Amazon bestseller and included a foreword by Olympia Dukakis. It was self-published in 2004. As of 2012, it is in its fifth edition. Her next book, Staff Matters: People-Focused Solutions for the Ultimate New Workplace[4], based on a series of interviews with leaders, HR professionals, recruiters, and business school professors, will be released on 28 February 2023.

Low-Kramen has written about workplace issues and personal assisting for publications including Harvard Business Review[5] and is a regular contributor and board member of Executive Support Magazine.[6] Regarded as a leading expert in workplace issues and personal assisting, she has been interviewed for Los Angeles Times,[7] Forbes,[8] The New York Times[9] and The Washington Post.[10]

Public speaking edit

In February, 2022, Low-Kramen gave a TEDx Talk called 'The Real Reasons People Quit'.[11] Low-Kramen regularly works as a public speaker at private events and businesses, including Starbucks, the British Parliament, the Wharton School, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, and Rutgers University.

Podcasting and YouTube edit

Since 2011, Low-Kramen has co-hosted the 'Be the Ultimate Assistant' podcast series[12] with Vickie Sokol Evans. The podcast interviews experts to discuss timely workplace issues. In 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic inspired a weekly live-streamed show on Facebook 'Heads Together'[13] that Low-Kramen co-hosted with her assistant Jennifer Wilner. The show ended in 2022.

References edit

  1. ^ "Ultimate Assistant Training & Consulting". Ultimate Assistant Training & Consulting. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  2. ^ "New York Celebrity Assistants". New York Celebrity Assistants. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  3. ^ Low-Kramen, Bonnie (2004). Be The Ultimate Assistant: A celebrity assistant's secrets to success (5th ed.). ISBN 978-0976326816.
  4. ^ Low-Kramen, Bonnie (2023-02-28). Staff Matters: People-Focused Solutions for the Ultimate New Workplace. Ultimate Workplace Press. ISBN 978-0976326847.
  5. ^ Low-Kramen, Bonnie (2022-06-24). "Is "Executive Assistant" the Right Career for You?". Harvard Business Review. ISSN 0017-8012. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  6. ^ Low-Kramen, Bonnie (2021-07-25). "A True Partnership: Olympia Dukakis and Bonnie Low-Kramen". Executive Support Magazine. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  7. ^ Piccalo, Gina (2003-12-09). "A Taste of the Limelight". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  8. ^ Strauss, Karsten. "The Ultimate Assistant Academy: Inside The Elite Training Program For America's Top Executive Assistants". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  9. ^ Cohen, Patricia (2004-06-08). "When Their Wish Is Your Command; Celebrity Assistants Keep the Stars Twinkling". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  10. ^ "After Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood assistants urged to break culture of silence". The Washington Post.
  11. ^ Low-Kramen, Bonnie (2022-02-23), The Real Reasons People Quit, retrieved 2022-11-10
  12. ^ "Be the Ultimate Assistant on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  13. ^ "Heads Together with Bonnie Low-Kramen - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2022-11-10.