Lisa Rodgers, who today becomes PA of the Year, is the perfect example of how the role has changed. Where 20 years ago a PA was busy with typing, shorthand and diary management, before adding e-mails, presentations and research to the list, today’s multi-taskers often have HR, training and recruitment responsibilities on top.

Lisa, 32, effortlessly and with aplomb, handles all this and more in her job as executive assistant to Rachel Bell, managing director of the PR and marketing agency, Shine Communications.

Rachel says: “I started my own working life as a secretary and worked as a PA until I was 25, so I understand the role more than most bosses, although I wasn’t nearly as good at it as Lisa.” Rachel started Shine when she was 29, ten years ago, and the agency has grown to employ more than 40 people, with clients including Vodafone, Oxfam, Royal Mail and Bird’s Eye.

Lisa joined six years ago when the company, based in Clerkenwell, Central London, was less than half its present size and Rachel did not have the responsibilities she has today: she has three children under 6, homes in London and Somerset, two further marketing companies and a half-share in an engineering business. Her companies employ 150 staff and turn over £9 million.

“I honestly only manage because of Lisa,” she says. “She is fantastic at understanding all the businesses and also looks after all my private life. One minute she’s organising a board meeting, and the next ordering 20 bags of manure for my garden in Somerset. She never loses her cool, not even when we once managed to unplug the server. She is completely indispensable, not just to me but also to the staff, to whom she often acts as confidante. No one ever wants to let Lisa down because she’s so warm and lovely. She’s the glue in the office.”

Lisa has won the firm’s Outstanding Employee Contribution award for four out of the seven years that the scheme has been running – and it’s voted entirely by staff. She starts her days early: “I’m at work by 8am to get everything ready before my whirlwind boss arrives. It’s an extremely busy role. Obviously Rachel directs me, but I am the one managing her life: about 70 per cent of my time is spent on Shine and the rest on her personal life, which could involve liaising with her children’s nanny or organising a family celebration. Six years ago, I didn’t think I would still be enjoying the job as much as I am, but it is like working with my best friends.”

Lisa has developed Shine’s training programme to 60 courses a year, covering all levels right up to the development of directors’ skills. The programme has won top industry awards for three years running. Lisa’s one-to-one Desk Doctor sessions have become legendary. She says: “I can’t work if my desk is untidy, and the trick is never to have more than one piece of paper on it at a time. I share my strategies with my colleagues to improve their working environment.”

Is she as ruthless with her e-mails? “My rule is never to have more than two e-mails in my inbox.” Lisa is testament to Shine’s belief that any organisation is only as good as its staff. “I only ever recruit people who are better than me,” says Rachel. “All the staff want responsibility and actively seek it, which means I can delegate with absolutely no fear. I take every school holiday off. And every Friday Lisa and I work together at my home.”

It was while the two were working off-site that Rachel’s husband, the actor Peter Ashdown, gave them a copy of The Times with details of the PA of the Year competition. The result? A prestigious title, a formal presentation at today’s Crème show at Olympia, followed by a celebration luncheon with the judges, sponsors and runners-up, and a visit to the Fortina Spa Resort, Malta, for a week.

No one deserves it more than Lisa – but what on earth will Rachel do without her? As Rachel puts it: “Shine would not be the same place without Lisa Rodgers.”

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