Meet Eliza Preoteasa
Managing Director, Risk & Financial Advisory, Deloitte US
The Faces of Deloitte TMT is a series of articles exploring the personal histories of our people, sharing the key experiences that defined their values and exploring why they do what they do. In this story, Eliza discusses adapting to change in its many forms.
Big changes can be frightening—even when you know the change will lead to a better future.
Eliza Preoteasa knows this first-hand from growing up in Romania at a time of incredible political and societal upheaval. And she draws on that insight when helping companies manage the changes that come with a finance transformation.
Eliza was nine-years-old at the time of the Romanian Revolution in 1989. She has a vivid memory of arriving home from school one day, turning on the television—and seeing tens of thousands of people in the street. It was the start of what would become the revolution—and the beginning of an incredible transformation for Romanian society. But even though almost everyone welcomed the change, she remembers it still wasn’t easy for people to adjust.
Eliza went to a high school that specialized in accounting and finance but her dream was to be a geography teacher and see the world. Her parents encouraged her, though, to consider a career in finance. Her mother was an Accountant, so she decided to study Accounting and Information Systems. She started working for Deloitte right out of college, excited that she knew was going to make a difference by helping Romanian companies become more competitive and grow the economy.
Mother to four young children—ranging in age from four to nine-years old—Eliza turned the limits of the pandemic into an opportunity see the country. In the past two years, she and her family have taken road trips totaling more than 20,000 miles across 15 states. "It’s been wonderful to explore and show our children so many different parts of the United States," says Eliza. “In a way, I guess, I got to be a geography teacher after all.”
But it wasn’t long, though, until Deloitte helped her realize that dream to travel as she embarked on the next big change in her life: moving to the United States. Deloitte’s Global Deployment Program helped ease her way. But even though she was familiar with US culture, there were adjustments—especially understanding the importance of communication. “Even though what I do is quite technical in nature,” says Eliza, “strong communication is still important. It is what enables me to gain buy in from my stakeholders—all the way from the delivery team to the C-suite—and deliver success.”
Why TMT?
Eliza is drawn to TMT companies’ ability to drive change across ecosystems and business behavior. Her background in informatics gives her a level of comfort with the technology and pace of innovation which is common in the TMT industry. “I’ve found that TMT companies act as a sounding board for other industries,” says Eliza, “Especially those that are hoping to get insight into what’s coming next and how that will change their business.”
