Crowe firm history

Crowe is a public accounting, consulting, and technology firm in the U.S. with offices around the world and $983 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. The firm and its affiliates have more than 4,500 personnel in 39 offices. Mark Baer serves as the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO), a role he took on in 2021. Brenda Torres serves as the firm’s chief operating officer (COO).

Crowe serves clients worldwide as an independent member of Crowe Global, one of the largest global accounting networks in the world. The network consists of more than 200 independent accounting and advisory services firms in more than 130 countries around the world.

Crowe is currently ranked the ninth-largest accounting firm in the U.S., according to Accounting Today.

Crowe has been named one of the best places to work by professional and business associations, human resource organizations, and local and national media. Crowe is a Great Place to Work-certified company. 

The firm continues its tradition of a strong financial services practice. Currently, Crowe ranks first nationally in the number of audits performed for publicly traded financial institutions, according to S&P Global’s Market Intelligence.

Crowe is currently ranked as the 10th largest healthcare management consulting firm in the country by Modern Healthcare. 

2021
In April, Mark Baer assumed the role of Crowe CEO and named Brenda Torres COO. New members to their executive team include Simon Riley, chief strategy and transformation officer, and Ray Calvey, chief financial officer.

In addition, Nicole Bencik was named managing partner of tax; Chad Kellar was named managing partner of advisory; and Tony Klaich was named managing partner of markets and industries. The full leadership team can be viewed here.

2020
Crowe launched the Crowe Hive, a social network for healthcare professionals to interact and collaborate in a safe and trusted digital environment.

For the third consecutive year, Crowe was named to the prestigious Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

In March, the firm released the free Crowe Pandemic Response app to help clients manage risk and compliance across multiple jurisdictions while simultaneously protecting their workforce.

Chris Mitchell was appointed as the firm’s first chief diversity officer in April. In this new role, Mitchell is responsible for driving an innovative and programmatic agenda to support a culture of inclusion in line with the firm’s vision and strategy.

In May, the firm introduced the Crowe PPP Loan Forgiveness Platform for Lenders, which helps lenders manage the complexities of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness process.

In June 2020, Wendy Cama was named the managing partner of audit services at Crowe.

Crowe achieved the prestigious 2020/2021 Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank Crowe in the top echelon of the Microsoft’s Business Applications global network of partners.

Crowe launched the Crowe Business Challenges Survey, an ongoing research project that tracks c-level executives’ sentiment on the pandemic, the economy, the government, social issues, the election, and business resilience. The firm published a spring, summer, and fall report highlighting these findings.

Throughout 2020 and leading up to the election, Crowe produced a series of tax scorecards, comparing the candidates’ proposals side-by-side on several key issues including individual tax, corporate tax, energy tax, and employment, retirement, and healthcare tax.

During this decade, Crowe began practicing under the name Crowe LLP, launched a new brand platform, and reorganized its risk consulting services and its performance consulting services under one umbrella. The firm also added two new C-suite roles: Chief data science officer and chief information security officer.

In addition, Crowe continued its focus on growing nationally and globally, adding offices in Sacramento, California; San Francisco; downtown Dallas; Washington D.C.; St. Louis; Miami; Simsbury, Connecticut; Burlington, Vermont; Cayman Islands; Boston; London; Denver; San Jose, California; downtown Los Angeles; and Houston.

Crowe invested heavily in innovation by means of new product development and merger and acquisitions. The firm also combined resources with CHAN Healthcare, now Crowe Healthcare Risk Consulting.

The firm debuted on the prestigious Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list in 2018. Crowe was also included on several other lists compiled by Fortune over the years, including: best workplaces in consulting and professional services, best workplaces for women, best workplaces for recent college graduates, best workplaces for millennials, best workplaces for parents and best workplaces for giving back.

2019

Effective April 1, Crowe reorganized its Risk Consulting practice and its Performance Consulting practice under one umbrella as Crowe Consulting, led by managing principal Josh Cole.

Crowe was recognized as an FY20 Microsoft Business Applications Inner Circle partner. This list represents the top 1% of all organizations in the Microsoft Business Applications group.

In response to its growing and expanding services in Texas and the south, Crowe opened its first office in Houston in October.

In October, Rex Voorheis was named the firm’s first chief information security officer and Steve Strammello was named the firm’s new chief risk officer.

Crowe and Thomson Reuters announced a strategic collaboration, the K-1 Analyzer tool, to help tax professionals address the burdensome manual work related to Schedule K-1 forms. The tool uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to read, extract and analyze K-1 data from front to back, including statements and disclosures.

2018

As part of its yearlong 75th anniversary celebration, the firm challenged its personnel to volunteer 75,000 hours in their communities, which was more than double the number of volunteer hours from the previous year. By the end of the challenge, Crowe personnel had exceeded expectations and volunteered 82,000 hours.

Crowe and the Department of Computer and Information Technology (CIT) at Purdue Polytechnic Institute announced the establishment of the Purdue-Crowe Digital Risk Collaboratory, which serves to develop opportunities in sponsored and government-funded research, with both sides working together on select Crowe client projects and services.

On June 4, the firm began practicing under the new name, Crowe LLP. At the same time, CHAN Healthcare, already part of Crowe, became Crowe Healthcare Risk Consulting LLC. The international accounting network, Crowe Horwath International, rebranded as Crowe Global.

In May, as part of its continued investment in technology and data, Crowe named Justin Bass the firm’s first chief data science officer and established the new data science business unit.

In January, the personnel of TRU8, a risk consulting firm with deep specialized knowledge and experience in the RSA Archer platform, joined Crowe. In December, Crowe purchased Asset Optimization Group, LLC (AOG), a healthcare technology and consulting firm specializing in a data-driven approach to asset management, from Hylant Group, Inc. Also in December, the firm welcomed the personnel from Sixred, an award-winning software consultancy specializing in cloud-based enterprise solutions from Oracle NetSuite, Adaptive Insights, Avalara and Dell Boomi.

2017

The firm established its first office in Denver when the personnel of Crowe GHP Horwath (GHP) joined Crowe. The personnel of SDGblue, LLC, based in Lexington, Kentucky, and San Francisco-based Rowbotham International also joined Crowe in 2017. The firm opened new offices in San Jose, California, and downtown Los Angeles. 

2016

Crowe unveiled a new brand platform: Smart decisions today. Lasting value tomorrow. The new brand was created based on market research and an analysis of the firm’s culture, including its management philosophy, core values and vision, as well as existing client and people engagement feedback.

The firm established a Boston-area office when the personnel of AbleBridge, Inc., a software company that specialized in industry software solutions built upon the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, joined Crowe. A London office was established with the acquisition of insurance industry risk consulting firm, BaxterBruce.

2015

Crowe added offices in Simsbury, Connecticut, and Burlington, Vermont, when the personnel of Saslow, Lufkin & Buggy, an accounting firm specialized in serving the insurance industry, joined Crowe.

A Cayman Islands office was opened with the establishment of Crowe Cayman Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary providing audit, accounting and business advisory services to the offshore financial community, with a focus on investment company and captive insurance entities.

2014

The firm extended its presence in Florida when it opened its Miami office.

Crowe sold its subsidiary Creative Financial Staffing (CFS) to its employees through the establishment of an employee stock ownership plan.

2013

Crowe combined resources with CHAN HEALTHCARE LLC, a 320-employee company based in St. Louis, Missouri, creating one of the largest providers of internal audit and financial advisory services in the U.S. healthcare industry. (CHAN now operates as Crowe Healthcare Risk Consulting LLC.)

That same year, professionals of ExtOrg, a Microsoft Dynamics consulting firm that specialized in the automotive supplier industry, joined Crowe. As part of the transition, Crowe also opened a new entity in New Delhi, India, where many of ExtOrg’s professionals reside, establishing the firm’s Technology Center of Excellence and Crowe Horwath IT Services Private Limited.

2012

After serving as Crowe’s COO for five years, Kevin McGrath became CEO at Crowe Horwath International, effective July 1, 2012. This followed the retirement of former Crowe partner and Crowe Horwath International CEO Frank Arford.

Crowe was ranked on the InformationWeek 500 list for the first time, and made the list again in 2013. This list, compiled by InformationWeek magazine, recognized the nation's top 500 innovative business teams that have made notable improvements to how their companies operate through the use of new technologies and models.

Crowe welcomed the talent of Sacramento-based NewPoint Group, a consulting firm that served state and local government clients in California.

2011

The firm established Crowe Horwath Global Risk Consulting (Crowe Horwath GRC), a global professional services firm assisting multinational companies with their governance, risk and compliance needs. In addition to its presence in the U.S., Crowe Horwath GRC originally had offices in London, Beijing, Paris, Toronto, Montreal and Tokyo.

The firm added offices in Sacramento and San Francisco, California when the people of accounting firm Perry Smith LLP joined Crowe. Crowe also opened an office in downtown Dallas and an office in Washington, D.C.