The Right Hand: Conversations with the Chiefs of Staff of the world's most powerful people

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Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks

The Right Hand

Conversations with the Chiefs of Staff of the world's most powerful people

Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks

$36.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Penguin Random House Australia
04 November 2025

Prose: non-fiction; Politics & government; Political leaders & leadership

Conversations with the Chiefs of Staff of Jacinda Ardern, Kamala Harris, John Howard, Justin Trudeau, Sanna Marin, Nelson Mandela, Michelle Obama, Tony Blair and Julia Gillard.

Imagine a typical day in the office where threats are constant. You are always protecting something; you are always fighting someone; everything is a secret; any delay in responding is dangerous, or even deadly. A political chief of staff is a curious, high-octane role - little-known to those outside the corridors of power, yet enormously influential within.

Chiefs of staff are our political system's ultimate insiders. Prime Ministers, Presidents, Premiers and other political leaders around the globe rely on their counsel, their discretion and their ability to manage the backroom business of government. To survive in this role, a person must be a skilled communicator, an excellent multi-tasker, fiercely loyal, judiciously discreet, and perhaps most importantly, be able to survive on minimal sleep. To thrive is to become part-strategist, part- therapist, part-parent and even part-psychic for some of the most powerful people in the world.

In The Right Hand, founder of media platform Missing Perspectives Phoebe Saintilan surveys recent world-shaping events by profiling the chiefs of staffs to some of the world's best-known leaders.

The Right Hand is peppered with never-before-told stories and insights into some of the world's most loved leaders, giving readers new perspectives of significant sociocultural and political events they felt they already knew, offering a glimpse behind the curtain that so often conceals the machinations of power, as well as presenting a vibrant narrative of the real-world West Wing and profound insight into this oft-mentioned but little-explained role.

By: Phoebe Saintilan-Stocks
Imprint: Penguin Random House Australia
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 1mm, Width: 1mm,
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9781761355745
ISBN 10: 1761355740
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 04 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Phoebe Saintilan is the founder of Missing Perspectives, a media company challenging the underrepresentation of young women in the news industry worldwide. Established in June 2021, Missing Perspectives currently reaches over 1 million people across more than 120 countries. With the support of Google, the company launched an app, the Missing Persons Directory, that will connect newsrooms with young female journalists. Prior to founding Missing Perspectives, Phoebe was a Policy Advisor, working stints at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the UN Secretariat and in the private sector. She studied a combined Bachelor of Arts/Law and a Master of Peace and Conflict Studies, all at the University of Sydney.