Aisling Teo

Tell us about your career to date:

My career at Deloitte began in 2007 as an Analyst on our graduate programme. With a strong background in retail, business and technology, I have built my career through architecting and delivering complex, cross-functional, tech-enabled transformation programmes for some of Deloitte's most strategic global clients, as well as for the firm itself. I also lead the Executive Women in Technology client programme, an initiative I took on in 2019, focused on bringing more senior women into technology leadership roles.

What does being a Partner mean to you?

To reach this level in my career is a huge personal and professional milestone – I’m really proud of this for myself and for what it represents to all who have supported and championed me through the years. For me, being a Partner is a commitment to ensure we have a sustainable future for our clients, our people and our partners. I’m passionate about continuing to shape the next generation of talent to reflect the diversity of the world we live in and to build on the legacy of all the great leaders of our business to help shape the future global direction of our firm.

What does GenAI mean for you and your career?

AI is challenging me and my teams to adapt, learn fast and evolve how we sell and deliver work. The prevalence of AI and its impact is re-shaping our client expectations, evolving the tools we use and our delivery methods. We need to be more agile in what we do, collaborate more closely with our alliance partners, leverage our scale across EMEA and bring the best of our global expertise to the forefront.

What role have client relationships played in your journey to Partner?

Client relationships have been hugely significant in my career and are fundamentally the backbone of our business. Each relationship has been a unique opportunity to help our clients to tackle their most critical and strategic challenges and to work on exciting new opportunities with them. What I've loved most is how these relationships evolve into deep partnerships - from clients advocating for our work to co-developing new and innovative solutions. Personally, I’ve been humbled by the number of past and present clients who reached out to congratulate me on my promotion. It’s been a wonderful reminder of how formative these relationships have been through my career.

What one piece of advice do you have for those aspiring to move into a more senior leadership role, particularly to females in the firm?

Put a stake in the ground in what you want to achieve. Surround yourself with people who are going to support and challenge you to get the best out of you - don’t let anyone, including yourself, limit your ambitions.

As the first woman in my father's family to attend university and hold a professional role, I've learned that a lack of role models who “look” like me is not a barrier to success. We’re a firm that’s beautifully composed of unique individuals and I've never felt a lack of inspiring leaders to follow and who champion me even if no one has been exactly like me. You take the best characteristics and behaviours from the leaders that you admire and use those to help you grow and shape your career.