Each year, Deloitte Luxembourg extends an invitation to a number of business schools and universities across Europe with the objective to gather fresh perspectives on the topic of gender balance within the corporate sphere.

With diversity and inclusion high on Deloitte Luxembourg’s agenda, participants were asked to suggest a solution to the following challenges: the first, “how to make audit, tax and consulting careers more appealing to young female students” and secondly, “how to improve the retention of female professionals and ensure gender balance at all grades.”

A vision realized

This year, the challenge received over 200 applications from across 38 different academic institutions. This alone is a testament to the outreach and impact of the initiative and the relevance of the topic itself. The finalists were invited to Luxembourg to present their projects and ideas on how gender balance and the attraction and retention of female professionals could be improved in the professional service sphere.

And the prizes go to…

Following a day of presentations and jury feedback, the award ceremony took place in the afternoon of Friday 7 December. 13 Deloitte Partners, including the firm’s Managing Partner, as well as external guests: Corinne Lamesch, Head of Legal Services Europe at Fidelity International, and Michèle Berger, CEO Pictet Funds (Europe) SA Funds Services, were present to congratulate the winners outlined below:

Subject 1:

1st place: the team from ICHEC Brussels  

2nd place: the team from Bocconi University

Subject 2:

1st place: the team from Tilburg University

2nd place: the team from HEC Paris