Executive Director of University Events

St. John's University•Queens Campus, NY

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Executive Director serves as the University’s senior event leader, providing strategic direction, institutional governance, and executive oversight for all presidential-level and other high-impact University events, including commencement ceremonies and other major institutional events. Reporting to and closely aligned with the Vice President, Chief of Staff, and University Secretary, in the Office of the President, this role is responsible for setting vision, priorities, and standards for the University’s event portfolio while ensuring consistent, high-quality execution and protection of the University’s reputation. This position provides strong executive leadership over the event team, with a clear expectation of effective delegation, performance management, and accountability across all assigned staff and event portfolios. The Executive Director is ultimately accountable for outcomes, but achieves results by building capacity within the team, empowering leaders at all levels, and ensuring decisions are made at the appropriate level, rather than through personal control of day-to-day tactics. As the strategic lead for university events, the Executive Director operates at the portfolio and enterprise level, translating presidential and University priorities into cohesive event strategies, setting standards and protocols, managing risk, and guiding teams to deliver results within defined frameworks. This role requires the ability to move fluidly between strategy and execution, stepping in directly where necessary for the most sensitive or high-stakes events, while maintaining focus on long-term planning, organizational effectiveness, and continuous improvement. The Executive Director leads cross-functional collaboration with academic and administrative partners, exercises sound financial oversight of event budgets and resources, and serves as a trusted advisor to senior leadership. A core responsibility of the role is ensuring that institutional protocol, quality control, and risk assessment are embedded into all planning and execution, and that leaders are equipped with clear, timely, and decision-ready information. This position reflects a deliberate shift toward a tiered, standards-driven, governance-oriented, and data-informed model for managing University events. In its early phases, the Executive Director is responsible for building and operationalizing the governance framework, establishing clear roles, decision rights, and performance expectations, and strengthening the Office’s capacity to operate effectively without over-reliance on any single individual. The role is expected to lead at a strategic and enterprise level, setting direction, priorities, and standards; developing leaders within the team; and ensuring accountability for results. Execution is intentionally focused on institutional-level and high-stakes events, with the Executive Director engaging directly where executive judgment, visibility, or risk requires it, while otherwise ensuring work is appropriately delegated and managed. Central to this work is improving efficiency, enforcing portfolio discipline, and implementing meaningful measures of success to guide future investment, resource allocation, and decision-making. While ultimately accountable for outcomes, the Executive Director is expected to delegate execution responsibility to portfolio-owning leaders, intervening directly only when institutional risk, protocol exception, or executive visibility requires.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
Minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in higher education or a comparably complex, mission-driven organization.
Demonstrated leadership experience, including work with executive leadership, presidents, or equivalent governing bodies.
Demonstrated success leading high-visibility institutional initiatives.
Proven ability to manage teams, oversee execution, and deliver results in high-stakes environments.
Demonstrated experience supervising and developing professional staff.
Strong judgment, discretion, and comfort working closely with senior and executive leadership and leading across organizational boundaries.
Operates with executive presence, sound judgment, and discretion; serves as a trusted leader capable of setting priorities, making trade-offs, and driving strategy aligned with presidential and university goals.
Demonstrates a strong governance mindset with the authority and confidence to establish, enforce, and uphold institutional standards, protocols, and decision rights across a complex organization.
Understanding of academic tradition, institutional protocol, and reputational risk; serves as steward of ceremonial standards and quality assurance for high-visibility initiatives.
Exceptional diplomatic and interpersonal skills; able to lead through influence, navigate competing priorities, and manage senior-level stakeholders with clarity, trust, and credibility.
Proven ability to lead and coordinate complex, high-profile events with multiple internal and external stakeholders while maintaining accountability, timelines, and institutional alignment.
Experience defining KPIs, conducting post-event assessments, and using data to inform strategic planning, continuous improvement, portfolio decisions, and long-term resource allocation.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate financial, strategic, and operational return on investment to guide prioritization, budgeting, and portfolio optimization across institutional events.
Proven people leader with experience building, developing, and holding accountable high-performing teams; fosters clarity of roles, collaboration, and professional growth.
Strong written and verbal communicator, particularly at the executive-level; communicates with transparency, consistency, and institutional awareness.
Technologically adept and operationally fluent; able to translate strategic vision into executable plans while embracing innovation, new tools, and best practices that enhance quality, efficiency, and impact.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.
Experience with institutional events, protocol, governance, commencement, or major ceremonies.
Experience developing or applying performance measures, KPIs, or structured post-event evaluations.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary point of coordination between the Office and the Office of the President.
Collaborate with the Vice President, Chief of Staff, and University Secretary to translate University and presidential priorities into a cohesive, intentional event portfolio.
Build a high-functioning leadership team and operational structure that enables the Office to perform effectively without over-reliance on the Executive Director for day-to-day tactical decision-making.
Provide direct leadership and oversight of all professionals within the Office.
Ensure teams are on track with planning, execution, timelines, and deliverables across all assigned event portfolios.
Set and enforce event priorities, sequencing, and scope decisions to balance institutional risk, capacity, and strategic value.
Coach, guide, and hold staff accountable for performance, quality, and adherence to institutional standards.
Reassign resources, step into execution roles, or provide hands-on support as needed to ensure successful outcomes.
Set annual priorities, goals, and operating plans aligned with the University’s Strategic Plan.
Maintain ultimate responsibility for the successful execution of all events owned by the Office.
Oversee event strategy and approve run-of-show development, scripting, guest experience, and institutional messaging for events.
Personally plan and execute select institutional and presidential-level events where executive oversight, sensitivity, visibility, or risk require direct involvement.
Ensure events are executed professionally, on time, within scope, and in alignment with University priorities and expectations.
Ensure the President’s Office receives timely, accurate, and decision-ready event information, including calendars, briefs, scripts, guest lists, protocol considerations, risk factors, and supporting materials.
Anticipate needs and proactively manage executive readiness for major events.
Ensure the Office is established as a Center of Excellence, and lead the implementation and ongoing operation of the University’s event governance model, including standards, protocols, and decision-making frameworks.
Partner closely with the Manager of Protocol to ensure institutional protocol, academic tradition, and ceremonial standards are consistently applied.
Serve as the final authority for protocol, standards, and exception decisions related to events.
Ensure that unit-led events subject to governance requirements comply with established institutional standards and expectations.
Identify and manage reputational, operational, and protocol-related risks associated with events, escalating issues as appropriate.
Oversee the documentation and preservation of key institutional records related to major events, honors, awards, and ceremonies.
Ensure that all Office-owned events have clear objectives, success measures, and post-event assessments, and that results are actively used to inform decision-making and performance accountability.
Lead post-event evaluations to assess effectiveness, outcomes, and opportunities for improvement, and use a Stop/Start/Continue framework to determine which events should be expanded, refined, consolidated, or discontinued based on institutional value and performance.
Use outcomes and ROI metrics to guide strategic decisions, resource allocation, and long-term portfolio strategy.
Drive operational efficiency by improving processes, staffing models, technology use, cross-training, and scalable resourcing approaches that reduce bottlenecks and support effective delegation.
Provide executive oversight of key vendors and external partners supporting events to ensure quality, performance, and alignment with institutional standards.
Oversee budgets, financial reporting, and resources associated with events.
Maintain a University-wide institutional event calendar and coordinate cross-unit dependencies.
Lead annual and multi-year planning for events, with attention to academic cycles, holidays, and institutional priorities.
Serve as a member/chair of the institutional committees, including: Commencement Committees, Honorary Degree and Commencement Speaker Committee, University Speaker Committee, President’s Society Selection Committee.
Perform other related duties as required in support of presidential and institutional priorities.