GSLI Alumni Spotlight: Quynhmai Tran, Deloitte ESG Consultant
By Aliya Carr
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) — lost in a litany of letters?
While to many it may bear no significance, Quynhmai Tran knows for companies like Deloitte that isn’t the case. They are all strung together by yet another acronym, ESG.
“Climate is the reason (Deloitte) has these services,” Tran said. “Climate is the biggest focus right now for all these companies.” Tran currently works as an ESG and Sustainability Consultant for Deloitte.
Tran graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2023 with a degree in Environmental Science. She was actively involved in the GSLI’s LIFT program and interned at Dell prior to working for Deloitte full time.
“I was really wanting to do consulting because I was curious to see different types of projects that related to ESG. It’s been really good for my career to try things out,” Tran said.
Tran’s work primarily consists of preparing companies for ESG-specific regulation, consulting on where the gaps may be in their current reporting compared to anticipated requirements. These engagements require extensive amounts of research and technical knowledge of sustainability reporting frameworks, as well as the ways in which climate-related risk may have real-world implications on various types of industries.
“Each day is different,” Tran said. “Depending on what engagement I’m working on, it can be a lot of stakeholder interviews, data entry, or research on whether companies meet certain regulations.”
The ESG landscape is a relatively new space, which makes it a dynamic area of focus. As newer management takes form and generational shifts change business priorities, ESG will be of increasing importance. Tran said recent regulations may indicate a positive upward trend.
“Over the past few years (growth) has been looking pretty good,” Tran said. “As the EU passed the CSRD and as we see bills in the US–including regulation like the SEC proposed rule–it’s an exciting time. We’re at the forefront of everything. If students want to get into the space, there’s space for them.”
In light of these changes, Tran said one aspect of the job she enjoys is seeing how companies may react. Given the large swath of clients Deloitte serves, each from a variety of industries and at different stages in their ESG maturity, no one client is the same.
Tran often sits in on interviews with corporate executives in which they assess which climate risks they consider material to their business operations.
“I felt the stakeholder interviews gave a lot of insight into what companies were actually thinking about ESG and what they wanted out of the process,” Tran said. “Some companies wanted to meet the regulation and be done with it, while other companies wanted to go above and beyond. It was cool to be able to interact with C-Suite executives as a young professional.”
When reflecting on her time recruiting for her role at Deloitte, Tran said the GSLI was instrumental in affirming her decision to work in ESG. She specifically highlighted her time in the LIFT program, even mentioning that LIFT helped her in interviewing with Deloitte.
“I did the LIFT program my senior year of college in the fall, when I was recruiting for other jobs and running around like a headless chicken in terms of figuring out what I wanted to do post-grad,” Tran said. “The GSLI helped me to cement where I wanted to be.”
Tran has been working with Deloitte for a little over a year now. Just a year ago, she was in the familiar shoes of many students. Tran now serves her community as a mentor within the LIFT program, as well as outside of it, guiding Deloitte interns in the GSLI minor.
For those students on the cusp of starting their professional careers, Tran encourages them to explore what they are passionate about.
“There are a lot of ways to bridge the gap between school and becoming an ESG professional, Tran said. “You just have to find your niche. There are a lot of opportunities out there.”
