Raphaël Glohr is concluding his thrilling journey at Deloitte. On the eve of his retirement, we sat down with him to hear about his 26-year career. From joining in 1998 as one of 350 employees, to shaping the future of VAT rules for executives as a Partner, his story is a testament to the heights you can reach at Deloitte.
Hear from someone who has truly "flown" the distance – both personally and professionally.
Coming from Nancy as a young graduate from ICN Business School, Luxembourg turned out to be a natural choice to start my career. Actually, it was a pure coincidence that I chose Deloitte. Friends of mine had the job pages of the “Wort” (national Luxembourgish newspaper), and there was a vacancy that fit my job aspirations. This was just before the Internet era, so looking for a job, required a lot of research of newspapers ads, university job fairs, physical job boards, or simply word of mouth.
I joined the firm in 1998, so 26 years ago, when it was called Fiduciaire Générale de Luxembourg, a member of Deloitte Touche Tomatsu. My badge was N. 602 and I pretty much knew everybody, as we were roughly 350 people altogether.
I started as a junior tax advisor and worked my way up to become partner in 2008 within the VAT team. I was very proud to be in charge of “learning” for the whole tax department for over 10 years, as sharing knowledge, experiences, and developing new skills has always been a necessary ingredient to stay on top of our game collectively.
In addition to leading the VAT team jointly with Christian Deglas and now Joachim Bailly for over 10 years, I was also appointed in 2020 as member of the Supervisory Board. This was a great accomplishment for me, as it showed that my fellow partners trusted me to stay objective and work in the best interest of the whole firm and across the generations.
It is very difficult to pick one specific memory if you’ve spent your whole career at Deloitte. I would say that I loved the moments with the team, especially after intense periods of work. The fact that we could all get together at team events abroad made it all worthwhile.
If I could cite one event, it would be the first ever tax team-building that took place in Chamonix in 2001. One of my colleagues made us climb up to “refuge du couvercle,” 2687 meters above the “mer de glace.” We were exhausted at the end of the day. Some of us were even mad at him because it had been so hard, but the next day we realized what we had achieved individually and as a team. To this day, this experience has turned former colleagues from this time into my dearest friends.
There are 4 pieces of advice I would share with them:
1) Be determined to work hard, be disciplined and do not expect that things fall into your lap. A career takes time to build, so you need to be patient with yourself and others.
2) Is a team effort. You need to build strong relationships within the firm to succeed. Foster people, show empathy, and have a good sense of humor. Enjoy working and laughing with your colleagues. You will spend more time with them than almost anyone else.
3) Stay curious and keep learning new things in every aspect of your job (hard skills, soft skills, self-management, expertise in certain fields, etc.). The tax law world today has nothing to do with the tax world that I joined 26 years ago. It has increased tremendously in complexity, innovation and administrative hurdles.
4) And last but not least, if you are committed, the firm is committed. Proof of this talent development and commitment within our firm is still strong. For example, four of the current VAT partners — Joachim, Cédric, Antoine and Aylin —all started as juniors, just like me.
What I enjoy the most is sharing my knowledge not just within the firm but also among other professionals in the field. For example, sharing expertise with professional associations like the Institut Luxembourg des Administrateurs (ILA) has given me the change to collaborate with public administrations. This collaboration goes beyond advising clients and is therefore particularly satisfying and interesting to me.
There are many technical milestones in my career, such as implementing the independent group of persons (IGP), the VAT grouping scheme, and the VAT package rules. If I were to highlight one key milestone in my career, I would pick the 2004 BBL EU Case law where investment funds became VAT-taxable persons overnight. With the help of my IM ACG colleagues, I was in the position to market our VAT services to hundreds of new clients within a blink of an eye. This has been an incredible accelerator in my career!
The lack of consistency in indirect tax rules worldwide, and within the EU Member States, creates significant tax exposure for our clients. It is vital that clients manage to identify one key contact person within an organization like Deloitte, who can deliver expertise in all these different markets and fulfill the role of a trusted advisor who can break down the complexity to the client. Deloitte’s international network is an irreplaceable strength.
The sheer volume of data that we share with the official public administration requires very powerful digital systems. AI already extends a huge step toward simplifying low-value-add processes. However, good actors like us must keep feeding the AI because, as much as AI revolutionizes many meaningless steps in our work, it needs to be us who determine what goes into the powerful tool.
In the short term, I'm planning to travel with a particular interest in Italy, especially in San Remo. I'm a big fan and intend to spend considerable time there.
But my most immediate plan is to spend six weeks in Cambodia with my wife starting in June. Before Deloitte, my French military service took me to Cambodia. Initially, I was reluctant to join the army, but I managed to sign an agreement with a French company to work abroad. I worked for the French central bank on a long-term assignment in Cambodia, where I spent 10 months. It was a challenging, yet rewarding experience. I’m excited to return.
It was a dream for decades to fly in a Jet so I managed to fly in a L39 Albatros for my 50 Years Birthday. Doing airplane barrel rolls, taking 4G, flying high up to the sky was an incredible unique experience. But definitively, I will not become a Pilot after Deloitte.
Try always to create a positive and welcoming atmosphere in the office, greeting everyone with a friendly "hello" to foster a sense of connection. Over time, these gestures ensure that, when a colleague seeks your assistance or you meet during team-building activities, the connection is already established. Small acts of kindness significantly enhance our environment. Let's look forward to a bright future together.
Raphaël Glohr, Deloitte Luxembourg