Gregory Derderian ’80 is a partner with “big four” accounting giant, Ernst and Young. In a leadership position that requires non-stop travel and a grinding work-life balance, Gregory tells us about how important it is for students to find a career path they love.
Transcript
>> My name is Greg [inaudible]. I am a partner at Earnest and Young. I work in their Financial Services Advisory practice and I lead our finance management team, serving banks, broker dealers, insurance organizations and asset management firms. Well I have both America's responsibilities of Canada through South America. I have global responsibilities into Europe and to Asia, Pacific region, and of course domestic responsibilities here within the U.S., so on any given week I can be in any of those locations. Most typically I will travel, you know, on a Monday up to New York, spend time with clients in the New York tri-state area there. Potentially head out to California, Chicago with some of my teams there, and then try to get home on Thursday nights, most times. So the first part is, I don't sit at a desk, okay. I am actually interacting, whether it's for firm purposes, client purposes. I'll be out in their offices interacting with clients on a daily basis. It's key to our success long-term, so no less than half a day every day spent with a client or two addressing the business problem that they're trying to solve. From an internal Ernest and Young perspective, I do lead a practice so there are some level of administrative responsibilities there in terms of performance management, coaching, mentoring, and of course taking care of some of the other administration that you have to deal with in a job like ours.
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