Corporate Responsibility Leader, EY
In 2009, Corporate Responsibility (CR) was not yet commonplace within EY. At that time, some niche but top-quality sustainability reporting services for clients were in place. An integrated plan still had to be made (and rolled out) to truly position sustainability at the heart of the company’s client services, operations, or employee engagement. I joined EY at the start of 2010 to do precisely this.
As of mid-2013, I served as CR Leader for Belgium and The Netherlands, reporting to EY’s Corporate Secretary & Executive Office Leader. I combined the three roles of serving Jan Peter Balkenende as his senior advisor, with Working Group Leader of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition and leading EY’s strategic CR action plan.
Together with various great colleagues, including a small team I built and supervised, we laid the foundations for EY as a responsible and sustainable firm. We created a business-relevant strategy, put KPIs and board governance in place, set up an EY Foundation and its NGO partnerships, ensured annual reporting, built thought leadership across service lines and sector groups, and integrated sustainability into functions such as learning & development, marketing & communications, and more. In the initial phase, I had the privilege of working with EY’s globally respected sustainability thought leader and accountant, Nancy Kamp-Roelands.
“Paulette is a remarkable woman and a pleasure to work with. She was the linking pin between EY and Urgenda, understanding both business needs and the NGO mission and drive. With her sustainability knowledge and social skills, and qualities (such as her extreme creativity and attitude of never giving up) she made joint projects possible. Projects that otherwise have been “stuck in the system” and initially seemed impossible to get off the ground. I wish everybody the pleasure of working with her.”
“When I was a Partner at EY, part of Paulette’s responsibilities as Corporate Responsibility (CR) Leader was heading up the team of Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC) CEO liaisons. She contributed substantially to raising EY’s CR profile, among other by continuously offering useful advice to (managing) partners and others. She successfully pressed for concrete actions, also with respect to EY’s internal organization and the EY Foundation she set up. She did an excellent job advising me at a strategic level, offering specific expertise on the integration of sustainability into business models, and served as a sparring partner both generally and in relation to EY’s sustainability services.”