The Assistant Files, Vol. 54: Alexa Cohen, ELLE’s Kevin O’Malley

by Dena Silver

Remember when we toasted ELLE‘s Kevin O’Malley as Publisher of the Year at our annual Fashion Media Awards? After the publisher, chief revenue officer, and SVP gave his assistant a shout-out in his interview, we decided to shine the spotlight on her. Turns out, this isn’t Alexa Cohen‘s first stint at the Hearst glossy. The Boston native shares her insight into keeping her boss on time and in the know…
BY DENA SILVER

What’s your backstory?
I grew up in Boston and I went to the University of Delaware, where I studied business marketing. I’ve always been interested in fashion media marketing; my mom was really successful as an account executive at CBS Radio. I always wanted to follow in her footsteps.

Did you rack up any internship experience, pre-ELLE?
My sophomore year of college, I decided I wanted to intern in New York. So I started applying. I didn’t really cast a wide net, because I knew exactly what I wanted. I applied to ELLE, Esquire, and a few fashion brands.

How did you seek out these internships?
I didn’t really know how to go about getting my first internship! I’d read the masthead and use it as a guide. I would find out email formats and just email whoever I thought I might want to work for. Luckily, I got a response from ELLE and got an internship in their PR and marketing department.

What was different about ELLE back when you were an intern?
It was an interesting time because back then ELLE was owned by Hachette, but had just been acquired by Hearst. I ended up working more on the marketing side of things since a lot of the PR positions at Hearst are corporate.

How did you score a job here from the internship?
I got along really well with Matt Smoak, who I reported to during my internship; he’s now at Ralph Lauren. I made sure to keep in contact with him from my sophomore year up until graduation. At the time, I had been going back and forth for interviews in New York. I was actually on my way back from interviewing at a record label when I got an email from Matt asking if I was looking for a job. Everything happened so quickly. I had three interviews with different people on the team; my last one was with Kevin. A week later, I was working here!

What was it like meeting Kevin for the first time?
Kevin has this intensity about him. It’s a good intensity, although it’s a bit intimidating. When he meets someone for the first time, he wants to know as much as possible about them, so he definitely asked a lot of questions in the interview. Let’s just say I haven’t had someone show that much interest in me in a while!

Did Kevin’s last assistant help ease you into the job?
No, because it was such quick turnover. A lot of my job is about learning as you go and dealing with things in the moment. There’s a lot of putting out fires and solving problems. Plus, she definitely didn’t have the time to write a hundred-page document on every issue that could arise.

Aside from assisting Kevin, what else do you do?
I manage our intern program along with Kayla Kommer, our marketing and finance coordinator. Because I’m young, I remember how it felt as an intern, and what I wanted to get out of an internship. Working with these girls who are so excited to be here is great. I’ll be like “Can you go make a copy of this page?” and they’re ecstatic. I also assist Paula Fortgang, who is our executive director of fashion and retail.

How do your assisting duties differ between Paula and Kevin?
With Kevin, it’s more of a personal assistant type role: if there’s anything he needs help with, I have to be there at that moment. With Paula, it’s about helping her with all that she needs for her sales role, like managing RFPs and client relationships.

What’s an average day like for you?
Kevin is an early riser. I think I could get here the night before and he might be here before me. Once I’m in the office, around 8:30 a.m., I look at his calendars and see what he has going on for the day, just in case I need to have anything prepped for meetings. Now that I’ve been here for a year, I really try to get involved in other departments throughout the day, especially with the heads of departments, like Susie Draper, our director of PR and editorial strategy, and Liz Hodges, the executive director of brand development and marketing.

Do you ever get to pitch marketing or advertising ideas to Kevin?
I’ve definitely gotten the courage to go in there to Kevin and tell him my point of view. Kevin does his homework, and he has four sons who fill him in on what’s cool. But I don’t think his sons are shopping at Sephora or going out. Providing a female millennial perspective is helpful to him.

Speaking of millennials, is Kevin big on social media?
He thinks that it is such an important thing for the magazine to use and embrace, but he doesn’t use it for his own voice because that’s not what his job is. He’s more of a behind-the-scenes guy.

What’s your favorite part about your job?
There’s obviously a great feeling after putting out a fire. To know that under pressure, you can get something done that needs to get done is a good feeling.

What kind of fires have you put out?
One time, Kevin was stuck in an ice storm in Dallas, which is the most insane thing. I think I had every single person in Hearst’s travel department on the phone figuring out how to get him out of this ice storm because he had to get back for an appointment the next day. I remember being like, “Kevin I found you a flight, but you have to get to the airport right now!” I don’t know if he has a special pass that just lets him zoom through security, but it was thirty minutes to the flight and he was still in the car. About fifteen minutes later, I get a text from him that just said, “On the flight.”

What’s the strangest request Kevin’s ever asked of you?

Once I got an email from him, I think he was downstairs, and he asked me to turn on ABC at 4 p.m. on the TV in the conference room. I thought it was so strange. Then I realized it was because the World Cup was on. He was watching the game as people came in to ask him what they should do about a beauty account. He was talking lipsticks and shoes while watching soccer. It was funny!

Is he a big soccer fan?
Yeah! We actually decided to get him a soccer ball for his birthday, and we had the entire staff sign it. Although we had to give it to him in privacy, because he doesn’t like his birthday [celebrated] in the office, I know he did really enjoy it. I actually saw him playing with it a few times in his office. Maybe it just boosts the brain flow.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I want to be in a place that has as many smart, creative, and innovative people as ELLE. Maybe it will still be ELLE!

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1 comment

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Tom June 7, 2016 - 12:08 PM

Kudos to you

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