Taking Stock - Olympic torch fires up D&T.

TS was impressed to hear that Deloites managed to muscle in on Olympic torch-carrying duties.

A breathless Deloittes person tells us Lynn Odland, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s Aussie chief, carried the Greek flame aloft for a 500 metre dash through the streets of Sydney on the penultimate day of its journey from Athens.

Deloittes said it was honoured to be part of the Olympic spirit gripping the nation and helpfully points out the Olympic flame is environmentally friendly and can survive any weather, as evidenced by its ability to travel under water, across deserts and over mountain ranges.

Proving once an accountant, always an accountant, Deloitte’s Aussie website tells us when Lynn accepted the torch, the flame, which had been on the road since 10 May had been burning for 1,438 hours, had travelled through 13 Oceanic countries, all Australian states and capital cities and 180 Australian towns. Quite an audit trail to follow.

Grappling for a reason why Deloittes had such a honour bestowed upon it, TS was informed that the Aussie firm is now ranked as the third best employer in Australia and Lynn, a native Californian, had a huge profile in the business community. Not big enough to displace Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman who lit the flame to officially open the 27th Olympics at the spectacular ceremony in Sydney.

Despite his efforts TS believes our colonial cousins won’t be requiring Lynn’s services for any of the track events. Could this be the start of a new trend for the profession – Graham Ward dusting off his boxing gloves perhaps?