Beyond the balance sheet
Rethinking the role of the auditor
Today, audit and assurance is about much more than profit and loss.
However you choose to carve out your career, being an auditor can be an opportunity to tread a new path and influence the impact business can have on wider society. Just ask Emily Hesketh, Morgan Jones and Helen Cox.
All three are leaders in our sustainability assurance team. And while their routes into Deloitte may have been different, they have two common interests: numbers and nature.
Whether they’re navigating the reporting landscape, supporting communities or inspiring the next generation, they’re bringing their passion for the planet to the profession.
You don’t need a degree to do great things
One of our inaugural BrightStart apprentices, Emily Hesketh, recently became Deloitte’s first female partner to come through the school-leaver scheme.
Deloitte’s opportunities outside London attracted Emily to a role in Manchester 14 years ago. Now, she leads our regional sustainability assurance work.
Always conscious of her own footprint, she found her two-year secondment overseas really ignited her interest in sustainability and climate.
“I saw the destructive effects of climate change and the overwhelming impact that human consumerism was having on nature and the environment,” she explains. “I began questioning why a lot of non-financial information published by companies wasn’t being audited. When I returned to the UK, Deloitte was setting up a sustainability assurance team, and I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
From cutting carbon and reducing water consumption to health and safety and diversity, Emily challenges companies to understand and report their impact, targets and progress appropriately.
And she’s sharing her experience more widely, championing the BrightStart scheme and social mobility in schools: “Whether somebody goes to university is a personal choice,” Emily says, “but either way, Deloitte offers so many varied opportunities. It’s extremely rewarding – we’re breaking new ground a lot of the time.”
Reeling in results
“Fishing takes you to beautiful places that need to be preserved. That’s why fishermen are the first to notice pollution – we’re looking where no one else is.”
As an angler and lover of the great outdoors, Morgan Jones sees up close society’s impact on the natural world. But through his work, he’s helping to change it.
After studying environmental politics and economics at university, Morgan completed a three-month internship at the United Nations in Geneva, and it shaped his future direction.
Morgan’s 20-year career has taken him to sustainability consultancy and industry research posts. In 2021, he joined our sustainability assurance team after reading about the impact accountants were having on climate change.
“What we do is much more than you’d think,” Morgan says. “We're dealing with impactful issues that affect people and the environment, and we’re ensuring companies do the right thing.
“I always thought I could make the most difference working with large organisations in a corporate environment. What I bring to the team is the sustainability knowledge that helps our amazing auditors do an even better job.”
From greenhouse gases to green fingers
Also known as @helenlikesplants, Helen Cox shares her love of gardening with her 100,000-plus Instagram followers. And while she started her page to reach like-minded people, it’s become one of the many things she’s taken from bud to bloom.
Helen discovered Deloitte, and audit, while studying for her degree in economics and politics. A friend had applied for our Summer Vacation Scheme, so Helen did the same – and left the programme with a job offer.
She joined our Southampton office after graduating in 2014 and spent six years honing her auditing skills before landing a sustainability role in a cosmetics company.
But two years on, when Deloitte set up its own sustainability assurance team, she made a beeline back to the firm.
“It was like the stars had aligned,” says Helen, who also trained as a horticulturalist while away from Deloitte. Over the past year, Helen has built a vegetable show garden at the BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair, won a dahlia show and become a published garden writer. This year, she’s joined the Royal Horticultural Society as a trustee and will start her master’s in biodiversity and conservation, with Deloitte’s support.
“Everyone I’ve met in sustainability is attracted to it because they want to make a difference,” she continues. “For me, that’s a great environment to work in.”
