May 2020

Alumni newsletter

2© 2020 Deloitte General Services

INDEX

A farewell letter to Deloitte – Interview with Sophie Mitchell

Preparing tomorrow – Deloitte Luxembourg’s leadership changes

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2 Interview with Deloitte Sustainability Leader and Partner, Flavia Micilotta

Combatting COVID – 19 with resilience

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Explore Deloitte opportunities

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…yourself…Not surprisingly, it will be “Réviseur d’entreprise”.

…your career at Deloitte… Challenging, rewarding and people-centric.

…your leadership style…Consultatory but also instructive. The goal is to strike the right balance between the two.

…the Grand-Duchy…International, agile and smart.

In a few words describe…

…starts with… my family and a healthy breakfast, which ensures a good start to the day. Once I’m in the office, my first move is to check my agenda and confirm the day’s schedule.

…and ends when… I always plan to end my day 30 minutes before I actually leave the office. This gives me a stress-free moment to reflect on the day, take the time to chat with my colleagues, and make sure what needed doing was, in fact, actually done.

…includes a passion or hobby which helps you relax after a hard day’s work…I am a true nature lover. Whatever the season, I always make time to go for a walk or do some gardening. It is an incredible way to disconnect from work, empty your mind for a moment and gather energy for what’s next.

A typical day…

A farewell letter to Deloitte – Interview with Sophie Mitchell

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Why Deloitte?I will be open about the fact that in 1991, when I started my career as an intern at Deloitte, it was purely coincidental. It could have been Deloitte or anywhere else. When I left the firm in 1996 and returned one year later, I knew that I wanted to be nowhere else but Deloitte. My return to the firm was driven by its respect for the utmost professionalism of its people, its strong team spirit, and its unique ability to offer a structured working environment where there is space for an entrepreneurial spirit.

What makes the firm unique in your opinion? Globally, over the last 30 years, Deloitte has successfully safeguarded its multidisciplinary model. It is the most distinctive feature of our firm, alongside the entrepreneurial spirit I just mentioned. The rich variety of skills and expertise that coexist and work together on a daily basis in the firm always amazes me.

Deloitte and me…Your vision on the evolution of the firm since you joined:In 1991, when I first joined Deloitte, people were talking about the Big Eight or the Fat Six, and Deloitte was the little one. Today, there are only four of us left and we now rank first globally. Our growth has been exponential and constant, allowing us to move from challenger to leader. This is not a matter of luck. Our constant search for quality and excellence, always going that extra mile for our clients, is a clear differentiator. At the local level, I think our humbleness, the strength and diversity of our talent, and the respect and leverage of our differences have been key to our collective success.

Looking back

A challenging situation that you successfully overcame? When I became Partner in 2003. One of our major clients experienced a crisis; my predecessor had just left and I had to find solutions within a very short time frame. With many hours of hard work, but also common sense, I made my client’s problem mine and helped them overcome it. I learned a lot from this experience.

A farewell letter to Deloitte – Interview with Sophie Mitchell

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Your most notable achievement? Without any doubt, our move to D.Square, our new headquarter office! It was a six-year project and we successfully and seamlessly transitioned from Findel to the Cloche d’Or in less than a week. It was hugely satisfying and I had the chance to work with great teams from various departments to make this happen.

Another notable achievement was taking over the leadership of the Audit department in 2010. At that time, our Consulting branch was rapidly expanding and Audit was challenged in terms of profitability. As a team, we managed to demonstrate through hard work that Audit had a future, had value, and could still be profitable.

Finally, I personally feel proudest of having accompanied some colleagues through their career to new leadership positions. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside them and help them grow into the inspiring leaders they have become.

A memory from the day you became Partner? My predecessor advised me to save, in a separate file, all the emails of congratulations I received. He told me that on difficult days, it would help me to look over them again. I also felt a great sense of pride from my predecessor when I was appointed. It was such an encouraging feeling when you know that others want you to succeed and grow within the firm.

Looking at tomorrow

Where will we see you next?In France; Brittany, or more precisely in the Golfe du Morbihan. I have really fallen in love with the place, as it has everything I am looking for: the seaside and old houses with tons of charm. I am also about to embrace a new career: renovating the traditional houses of the region and transforming them into guesthouses. This will be quite a radical change from my corporate life!

The most important piece of advice for young professionals? To find pleasure in what you do, you must be vigilant in preserving the right balance between your personal and professional life. This will allow you to stay the course. This is a decision that everyone has to make for themselves—it cannot be made for you.

Your advice for tomorrow’s female leaders? Always believe in yourself and in what you can achieve. There are no limits and I don’t agree with the idea that you have to restrict yourself. You can live fully both personally and professionally. It is a matter of choice and how you act upon these choices.

A farewell letter to Deloitte – Interview with Sophie Mitchell

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As you are about to become a Deloitte Alumni; a word for our community?I am actually already in contact with many alumni; I am very impatient to meet them and not virtually if that is possible! I think our Colleagues for Life are an essential component of who we are at Deloitte. Once you have been part of the Deloitte family, it is something that stays with you.

To end

Your favorite quote“The unripe grape, the ripe bunch, the dried grape, are all changes, not into nothing, but into something which exists not yet.” –Epictetus

A word to conclude this interview? I would like to stress the gratitude I feel for the firm and its people for allowing me to become who I am today … for everything that they have brought me over the years, the joy, the laughs, the team spirit, the collaboration and the trust.

Sophie Mitchell in seven key dates:

1991: Post-graduate internship at Deloitte in Paris

1997: Leads portfolio of client engagements

2003: Appointed Partner

2009: Enters the firm’s Executive Committee

2010: Takes the leadership of the Audit department

2016: Nominated to pilot the move to D.Square

2018: Appointed as first Chief Operations Officer of the firm

A farewell letter to Deloitte – Interview with Sophie Mitchell

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You were recently appointed as Deloitte’s Sustainability Leader. Can you share what this means to you and the firm?

First of all, it is a great honor and undoubtedly a great challenge. As we speak, sustainability is at an all-time high on the global agenda and this momentum must be seized. Since the Paris agreement (COP21), we have seen a real need to further involve the financial sector in tackling the challenges ahead. Sustainable finance is a key pillar, if not the main one, of sustainability both today and tomorrow.

As Luxembourg is such an important financial center, and already well positioned on this topic, it will be interesting to support this shift in the mind of financial players and help them be more in tune with the times. I truly look forward to engaging with our clients about what sustainable finance means and how they can leverage its opportunities.

Interview with Deloitte Sustainability Leader and Partner, Flavia Micilotta

I actually started my career with Deloitte in Italy. I then moved onto other professional opportunities and worked alongside the Big Four on many occasions. However, at that time, Deloitte was perhaps the one that I encountered the least in terms of positioning on sustainability with regulators and policymakers. I saw an opportunity and challenged them on this point. The firm’s leadership was eager to give me the chance to expand this role and further develop a unique Deloitte expertise on this matter. So, I chose Deloitte and they chose me—it’s an interesting match made at the right time.

Why did you choose Deloitte?

The first focus is to help drive sustainability forward from a sustainable finance angle. To achieve this, there is a need to create alignment within the firm, with our colleagues, to make sure we are all up to speed on the topic and what it means to our clients. When developing new service offerings, we must make sure we all speak the same language. In my view, we are all sustainability ambassadors, so I am working on specific training to be implemented firmwide, delivering to everyone the basic components of what sustainability means to us and how it can bring added value to our clients.

What is your vision and what are your priorities in taking this role?

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What inspires you the most in your current position?

I devoted my entire career to sustainability, trying to push for accountability and engaging with various stakeholders to help them embed sustainability in their models. Today, everyone is talking about it. This shows the importance of the topic and the need for key players to lead the way. In this regard, I have been really inspired by Deloitte’s work on this topic for some time now. In particular, I was inspired by the work done by Preben Sorensen, DTTL Leader environmental and sustainability services on sustainability. However, we have still not explored every angle and possibility so there is still room for improvement. It will take a while but working with consultancy will be a key way to address the current challenges and aim together towards a common goal of a more sustainable future for businesses and society at large. There has never been a more powerful moment to change the way we consider and do business.

The other key challenge is continuing to work closely with the regulators, as they are the ones guiding and pushing for the creation of these standards and definitions that we may still be lacking.

At Deloitte, our strength is to be able to talk to both sides—the business and the regulators. We should capitalize on this unique position and support all stakeholders in moving forward.

In your opinion, what are the main challenges to implementing a more sustainable approach for market players and beyond?

Interview with Deloitte Sustainability Leader and Partner, Flavia Micilotta

To me, challenges are opportunities. One key challenge I see is the lack of standards, a common definition and consensus on a common narrative. Therefore, our goal is to guide our clients by tailoring our approach and showing them the added value it can bring to their business while taking into account the specifics of their industry.

How can sustainability be a game-changer for our clients, communities and society at large?

The answer is how can it NOT BE!

Sustainability is now part of each and every conversation we have with clients. Even with the more “hardcore” players—those who may have been reluctant to discuss the topic not so long ago—sustainability is now part of the conversation. Implementing it really pays off and creates robustness and new opportunities for businesses. There is tangible proof of this and we should present our clients with this reality. If we take a closer look at the current situation, companies that have sustainability already well-embedded in their business model have already shown a more positive performance and strong signs of resilience.

So again, sustainability is and will be a game-changer.

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Combatting COVID – 19 with resilience

Our Luxembourg portal Responding today, planning for tomorrow, offers you a collection of key resources to help you and your organization plan for tomorrow, including:

• Current Luxembourg funding answers due to the Coronavirus• Publications by industry related to Covid-19 consequences• Deloitte Webinars all around the world

On the global portal combating COVID-19 with resilience, see the bigger picture with COVID-19 government responses and prepare for several post-crisis scenarios in the world remade by COVID-19

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Our firm has stepped into a new decade with a fresh leadership line-up to ensure alignment with the firm’s ambitions and scale. Currently structured across three service lines—Audit, Tax, and the Advisory and Consulting Group (ACG)—the firm has also announced an additional service line: Operations, formerly known as business support functions.

While Christiane Chadoeuf continues as Audit and Assurance Leader, Deloitte Luxembourg has announced new leaders of the firm’s other three divisions. Starting on 1 June 2020, Patrick Laurent will adopt the leadership of ACG, Bernard David will become Tax Leader, and Pierre Masset will lead Operations.

“Looking to the future, we all carry a collective responsibility to hand over this firm to the next generation, to constantly improve it, so that they too can continue on this successful journey. I fully trust our new leaders to deliver the excellence that is expected from Deloitte Luxembourg, aligned with the common vision of our firm, making it stronger and ready to seize opportunities as they arise,” stated John Psaila.

Preparing tomorrow – Deloitte Luxembourg’s leadership changes

The new Executive Committee will be composed as follows:

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Explore Deloitte opportunities

Whether you are looking to take the next step in your career or searching for the latest business insights, we are here to support you.New job opportunities arise every week at Deloitte Luxembourg, check them out here.

Visit our Deloitte Luxembourg Alumni newsroom for hand-picked local reports and news.

Leverage the extensive Deloitte Insights portal:

• Capture the big picture with the weekly global economic update.• Discover the daily executive briefing.• Consume collections like the Deloitte Review, Tech Trends 2020,

Industry 4.0, and many more.

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12© 2020 Deloitte General Services

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