Dive Brief:
- Deloitte has appointed company veteran Smruti Naik-Jones to lead sustainability for its newly launched Europe, Middle East and Africa business. The EMEA division includes 16 participating firms operating across 80 countries and is led by 6,000 partners, according to Deloitte.
- Naik-Jones’ new role is an expansion of her most recent position as chief sustainability officer of Deloitte’s United Kingdom and North and South Europe operations, which she has held since June 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was also the first CSO to be appointed by Deloitte for its U.K.-based business.
- Naik-Jones, who has been with the accounting firm for nearly two decades, announced her appointment as CSO for the EMEA region on Monday — the same day Deloitte’s EMEA business officially went live.
Dive Insight:
Naik-Jones will continue to be a part of Deloitte’s operations leadership team and help steer the firm toward achieving its broader sustainability goals, which include a target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by 2040. Deloitte said it aims to achieve this by reducing scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions 90% by 2040, against a 2019 baseline, and neutralizing the remaining 10% of residual emissions through carbon removal investments.
The consulting firm also has near-term decarbonization targets that include sourcing 100% renewable electricity for all company buildings by 2030 and transitioning its entire fleet to electrical vehicles by the same year.
“We are at a pivotal moment in an important region,” Naik-Jones said in the June 1 post announcing her new role. “My priority for Deloitte EMEA is to play a leading role in helping drive this transition to a sustainable future.”
Deloitte announced it would launch an EMEA leg in February and, at the time, reported that the 16 participating firms generated a collective revenue of 20 billion euros ($23.2 billion).
Aside from serving as sustainability chief at Deloitte for the past few years, Naik-Jones has also served as an ethnicity and inclusion leader at the firm’s U.K. division and as a director overseeing growth, business strategy and practice for the firm’s North and South Europe division. Prior to Deloitte, Naik-Jones held leadership positions at competing firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, according to her LinkedIn profile.
