PROFILE
Lessons from an EA to
the President of the
United States of America
Our editor sits down for an in depth talk with Peggy Grande, who
served as EA to Ronald Reagan, to discuss her experience with the
beloved President & what she learned along the way
Peggy describes herself as ‘that nerdy kid’ growing up,
with a love of politics, presidents and all things government.
Following her passion, Peggy was studying communications
in LA in 1989 when Ronald Raegan moved back to the city
after finishing his tenure as President. Known as ‘The Great
Communicator’, she took a chance and wrote a letter to the
President asking for a job.
“I was shocked when I was invited into the office to
interview for a role as an intern,” Peggy recalls, “I was hired
pretty much on the spot.”
After finishing her degree, Peggy was hired as a full-time
EA to Raegan’s Chief of Staff, and two years later found
herself sitting outside the President’s office as his EA. Over
the next ten years Peggy was taken on a career journey
unlike any other. Alongside one of the most revered US
presidents in history she experienced incredible events, met
powerful figures and developed a special relationship with
the man behind the Presidency—while also getting married
and having three of her four children.
As Peggy and I began our conversation I came to realise
just how valuable her experience was, not just for me as a
storyteller, but for EAs looking for ways to overcome their
daily challenges.
Keep it secret, keep him safe
The first thing I wanted to understand when I was planning
my talk with Peggy was how working for a President related
to the corporate world. I wanted to know what some of the
more unique challenges were that made working for a head
of state different to working for the head of a company.
Straight off the bat, Peggy brings up security.
“Working for a beloved figure with such a high-profile
added an extra layer of complexity to the job. You couldn’t
just walk in or out the door, you couldn’t plan an impromptu
stop. Everything had to be perfectly choreographed with a
lot of different partners and players.”
But the President’s personal safety wasn’t the only
security concern that Peggy had to manage as working for
someone with top-level security clearance required extreme
discretion. To help her manage, Peggy lived by a quote that
Nancy Reagan shared with her.
“Whenever I had to tell Ms Reagan something confidential,
she would always say ‘I’m a well, not a fountain for
information.’ I would think about that imagery all the time.”
28 Chief of Staff | Issue 1 2020
Rubbing shoulders with world leaders
Peggy laughs as she tells me, “I don’t want to sound like
a name-dropper, but I’ve had the incredible opportunity
to interact with people like Maragret Thatcher, Mikhail
Gorbachev, Mother Theresa and world leaders from across
the globe. These were the people that I got to interact with
on a daily basis and that was a great honour.”
Spending time with these world leaders is a very rare
experience and I wanted to know what strategies she had for
dealing with people whose names are spoken about in both
living rooms and newsrooms across the globe.
Peggy’s approach to high-profile meetings involves not
just facilitating the event, but an acute understanding of the
‘who’ and the ‘why’.
“When people would come to visit, I would figure out
why they were historically relevant and what their history
with President Raegan had been. It puts you in the proper
mindset.”
Visiting Reagan was an experience that Peggy truly
valued. Her daily experience with the President didn’t get