“Numbers Don’t Close Deals, People Do”




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  • 2012-09-28 14:22:37
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Mr. Todor Todorov, the new Assistant Director at Deloitte Bulgaria, gave a talk on September 26th, Wednesday. The event was organized by the Business Club and held in the Andrey Delchev Auditorium in BAC. Nikolay Petrov, the President of the Business Club, opened the lecture by greeting Mr. Todorov as a former AUBG graduate. The guest-speaker currently works for one of the largest international audit firms (the so-called “Big Four”), Deloitte which is actually the biggest one. Mr. Todorov then took the floor and shared his convoluted life story. He was studying English philology at the Sofia university in 1991 when AUBG opened its doors for the first time. He transferred here with the aim of getting a better grasp of English literature. However, once he began his studies at AUBG, a friend of his advised him to switch majors. “Everyone’s talking about Business Administration,” his friend said after a visit to the States. At the time, Mr. Todorov grew infected with what he describes as the “Wall Street thinking” – going for large and quick profits – so he changed his major. After graduating in 1995, he was employed at a small US-based consultant company where he acquired the basics of business practice. He worked for 3 years in Bulgaria before he enrolled at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, U.S. His Master’s at “the best school for international business” was in Corporate Finance. Upon graduation he was about to attend an interview with the gigantic Enron Corporation when he decided to accept an offer from J. P. Morgan. Soon, though, he was allured by the trendy idea of a hedge fund – an investment fund that usually deals with affluent investors. He set up his own fund “because it was cool” but got tired of it and decided to return to Bulgaria. Once back on his native turf, Mr. Todorov began working for Deloitte Bulgaria – the leviathan in the industry of audit services and financial advising. He climbed up the professional ladder to the rank of Assistant Director. When asked about what the ideal Deloitte employee would be, he replies: “A good attitude. Not so much expertise but having a sense of belonging and commitment to the company. No matter the number of people, we always work like a tight group of comrades not colleagues.” In conclusion, Mr. Todorov advised AUBG students to finish their degrees, gather some work experience and then go on to acquire Master’s degrees. He welcomed both Bulgarians and foreigners to have a go at Deloitte Bulgaria internships and distributed advertising materials to the audience. After the lecture and follow-up discussion were over, everyone retired to the buffet outside the Auditorium and had the chance of talking vis- à-vis to Mr. Todorov.