Chief of Staff Unmasked: Power, Play - #SFTechWeek

Thursday, Oct 9, 2025

10:00am – 11:00am

Hosted by

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https://events.zoom.us/ev/Aj8VxF-37WEZ9aoeuB-LctJEDLTR0XRhkK4zDui_9sOjssqUXu_n~Amu1NBcNfHgVR0-IthcgOCdAiPyddxmk3ucn5uOWJ_SsfaO5GCNqDAyhDA

This is a virtual event. Link provided

In this powerful and interactive session, Anne Marie Otañez peels back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood yet high-impact roles in modern leadership. As a former Chief of Staff at Microsoft and the founder of the globally recognized Chief of Staff Academy™, Anne Marie brings over 20 years of experience navigating executive priorities, business transformation, and cross-functional leadership at some of the world’s most influential organizations. Whether you're aspiring to step into this role, already hold the title, or want to build influence without formal authority, this session will equip you with a clear understanding of the Chief of Staff’s evolving purpose and why it’s more relevant now than ever. Key Themes Covered: The Strategic Core of the Role: Understand how Chiefs of Staff manage up, down, and across, acting as force multipliers, trusted advisors, and execution leaders in fast-moving environments. Behind-the-Scenes Influence: Learn how Chiefs of Staff operate at the intersection of strategy and execution shaping priorities, managing cross-functional workstreams, and facilitating executive alignment without owning a team. Frameworks for Success: Anne Marie will walk through proven models and real-world scenarios, including org design influence, decision support, leadership rhythm planning, and change navigation. The AI-Enabled Chief of Staff: Explore how modern Chiefs of Staff are leveraging AI tools to: Draft executive communications and prepare briefings with speed and clarity Automate stakeholder reports, meeting recaps, and decision logs Analyze sentiment and engagement across the organization using AI-generated insights Serve as a trusted innovation partner to their executives, helping evaluate AI-driven business cases This portion of the session will include live examples of prompt templates and use cases Chiefs of Staff can immediately apply whether they are supporting one executive or leading an entire executive office. Challenges and Hidden Truths: Discover the real emotional labor, strategic tensions, and visibility issues that come with this role and how to navigate them with confidence and clarity. Takeaways: A day-in-the-life understanding of a Chief of Staff what they do, what they don’t, and what they influence Actionable frameworks you can use immediately in your leadership practice AI tools and use cases tailored to the Chief of Staff’s core responsibilities How to stay grounded while scaling your executive presence This event is a part of #SFTechWeek—a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Learn more at www.tech-week.com.