Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (the "Deloitte U.S. Entities"), one of the nation's leading professional services firms, provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services through nearly 30,000 people in more than 80 U.S. cities. Known as an employer of choice for innovative human resources programs, the firm is dedicated to helping its clients and its people excel. Deloitte is the U.S. member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

EMPLOYEES: The more diverse our people's backgrounds and expertise, the better. With more than 100,000 professionals worldwide, sharing their unique perspectives across our functions, we are uniquely positioned in the global marketplace to understand our clients' complex needs and exceed their expectations. Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and its subsidiaries (the "Deloitte US Entities") are equal opportunity firms. Each of the Deloitte US Entities recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes without regard to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or veteran status or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

WEBSITE: www.deloitte.com

What are you proudest of about Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (The Deloitte US Entities)?

The dedication to our people, the way we interact with each other and the opportunities we offer. We have about 2,700 partners in the organization and in the beginning of my career I thought it would be years before a partner even noticed me. Instead, they took an interest in me from the beginning. My plan was to stay here for two or three years and then move on to Wall Street. That was 23 years ago and I'm still here. A big reason for that is the partners that mentored me, took an interest in my career and had faith in me. This is not only my story. I know that most of my colleagues tell similar stories about their careers here.

What role does diversity play in your work?

It plays a key role. What we offer clients are ideas and advice. In order to provide them with solutions we need diversity of ideas. You only get that by having diversity of people. The organization has several programs and initiatives that ultimately ensure that we provide our clients with the best ideas and solutions available. The Business Resource Groups, for example. They are networks that tie certain employees together, such as ABLE (the Association of Black and Latino Employees), International Employees Group, a parenting group and more. They come together and talk about their core concerns and how they relate to life inside the organization and to work with clients. The objective of the groups is to connect people with common experiences and views inside our organization and to further connect them with people in our communities and our clients.

Did diversity play a role when you chose to join Deloitte & Touche USA?

Well, that was in 1982 and diversity wasn't even a term of art. I think I asked a question or two but it was not a major concern. The Big Eight accounting firms, or for that matter most of Corporate America, had not yet picked up the mantel of diversity, but that has changed dramatically since then. I remember when I started in the New York office there were four blacks and maybe four other minorities in my starting group of about 150. Today, 40 percent of those we hire have a diverse background and 28 percent of our population is diverse. Clearly, there has been a sea change in the way we look at diversity as a business imperative.