2021 U.S. Transparency Report: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion is, first and foremost, the right thing to do. At Crowe, we believe everyone should feel they belong – and it’s our responsibility to do everything we can to increase that sense of belonging. It’s the right thing for our people, as it offers everyone the opportunity to bring their most authentic selves to their work, every single day. It’s also the right thing for our business, as diversity is proven to drive the innovation and creativity that lead to better business outcomes.

DE&I isn’t just about checking a box, introducing a few new training modules, or filling positions. It’s about creating a sense of community and having our people expand that community by making room for more seats at the table – which, in turn, increases the diversity in all areas of our business.

That community is grounded in our purpose – “Shaping Your Better Tomorrow. Together. Today.” – and our core values of care, trust, courage, and stewardship. These core values define who we are and determine how we treat our people, our clients, and our communities. To help make the Crowe vision a reality for our stakeholders, we must continue to escalate our DE&I efforts, but not with a one-size-fits-all approach. 

We’re also committed to supporting the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) Bold Ambition regarding diversity: “It’s our Bold Ambition for the public company audit profession to pave a way towards a more inclusive, future state of community. Bold Ambition is shining a light on the profession’s collective vision of diversity and inclusion to drive better business outcomes by strengthening the workplace environment, engaging and supporting communities with new opportunities, increasing equitable opportunity for students, and making changes for a brighter tomorrow.” Attracting diverse talent isn’t just something we do for Crowe – we do it for the entire profession.

We look forward to sharing our progress and how we’re Shaping Your Better Tomorrow. Together. Today.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion must be an ongoing, ever-present priority for us as a firm – not something that disappears with the current news cycle. Nurturing the values, ethics, and culture of diversity – and dedicating resources to it – is important to our people, our communities, our clients, and others we do business with.”

– Christopher Mitchell, Chief Diversity Officer  

Our DE&I journey has a solid foundation, guided by our Inclusive Excellence Council (IEC). The IEC sets the strategy and direction for all our diversity efforts and includes members of our executive team and partners across all business units. We’ve built our journey on a variety of successful initiatives, policies, and programs implemented over the years. We outline a few of those successes in this timeline and continue to use them as a foundation to build on our journey moving forward.  

“Diversity comes in all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and interests. Having a variety of diverse people allows others to find someone in the group with whom they can identify and connect. A diverse workforce allows for more creativity to solve problems, and it helps us better connect with our clients who are diverse.” 

– Vicky Cheng, Managing Director, Consulting 

Inclusion is a key element of our DE&I strategy – especially where our people composition does not align with the world around us. It starts with transparency and accountability about where we are on our DE&I journey. And that accountability means sharing data on our people – the work in progress and also where improvement is needed. 

We are working on recruiting initiatives to increase our diverse representation. However, retention is an important indicator of a sense of belonging and an inclusive culture. 

To learn more about our journey by the numbers, download the executive summary

The data on our workforce highlighted several areas that require meaningful change. We reviewed our existing programs and determined that we needed to embrace uncomfortable conversations and challenge what we thought we knew. As a result, we have identified 19 areas for change that span our culture, people, and communities, which can be found in the executive summary.  

Our key aspirations reflect an intentional commitment to increase our representation. By 2025, we aim to have:  

We know that change won’t happen overnight, but we are unwavering in our commitment to create and maintain a culture in which all our people feel they belong, can be their most authentic selves, and have an opportunity for professional growth and success. 

“Joining the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) meant I was not and am not a ship by myself. NABA members became my support system, and throughout the years, my involvement has helped develop my professional skill set. My parents taught me to give back as much as you take – and since NABA got me through a lot, I try to give back twice as much.”

– Herschel Frierson, Crowe Principal and NABA Chair 

Since 2017, we've supported CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, a fellowship of 1600+ national and global organizations that fights racial inequities through changing existing public and corporate policies or creating new policies. Victor Sturgis represents our firm as part of the CEO Action for Racial Equity fellowship, which works to advance racial equity. 

We know we can’t make a true impact unless we reach beyond our walls and engage in diversity efforts that affect our profession, our future leaders, and our communities.  

Learn more about how we’re bringing our journey beyond the walls of Crowe