Crowe Brand Guidelines: Horwath of 1915, Crowe Chizek of 1942 & One Global Name

A hotel-audit practice in New York and a two-man firm in Indiana.

Crowe is the name shared by an international network of independent accounting and advisory firms and by its American member, Crowe LLP. English Wikipedia says the network is headquartered in New York and that its member firms belong to Crowe Global, previously Crowe Horwath International, a Swiss Verein registered in Zurich; it counts more than 220 firms, more than 40,000 employees and more than 750 offices in 150 countries, and ranks the network eighth among global accounting networks by revenue. German Wikipedia describes the same structure: a registered seat in Zurich and a head office in New York, with member firms offering audit, tax, consulting, legal and risk services.

The network has two roots. The older is Horwath & Horwath, founded in New York in 1915 by the brothers Ernest and Edmund Horwath. German Wikipedia says the two Hungarians had emigrated from Budapest to the United States in 1907 and began their business auditing hotels; English Wikipedia says the practice first focused on the hospitality industry and later added accounting, audit and tax work. In 1967 the American firm merged with Laventhol Krekstein Griffith & Co. to become Laventhol & Horwath. An umbrella body for the firm’s international work, Horwath & Horwath International Associates, had been set up by 1960, according to English Wikipedia; German Wikipedia dates its founding as an association to that year.

The second root, and the source of today’s name, is Crowe Chizek. English Wikipedia says it was established in 1942 in South Bend, Indiana, by Fred P. Crowe Sr. and Cletus F. Chizek. Crowe had worked in public accounting for many years and had served eight years as the St. Joseph County auditor; Chizek was head of the accounting department at the University of Notre Dame and practised part-time. The firm became Crowe, Chizek and Company, and its first legal partnership was formed in 1962 with six founding partners, English Wikipedia says.

From Horwath International to Crowe Horwath to Crowe.

The two roots met in the international network. Laventhol & Horwath, the American firm, filed for bankruptcy, and in 1989 the international association shortened its name to Horwath International, according to both English and German Wikipedia. In 1991, English Wikipedia says, Crowe Chizek became a member of that network.

German Wikipedia says the network took the name Crowe Horwath International in 2009 — English Wikipedia dates the change to April of that year — and that the “Crowe” in the new name stood for Crowe, Chizek and Company, the network’s largest member firm in the United States, itself named after its founder Fred P. Crowe Sr. The pairing of two surnames lasted nine years. In June 2018, English Wikipedia says, the network moved to the single name Crowe across its independent member firms worldwide; German Wikipedia says the network has been called Crowe Global since 2018.

The single surname is used by the global body, by the American firm and by member firms in other countries. German Wikipedia, for example, gives the German member, Crowe Deutschland, a base in Stuttgart, with offices in cities including Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main and Munich.

English Wikipedia lists the network’s services as audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk and financial advisory work, and names Kamel Abouchacra as chief executive of Crowe Global from 2023.

Design and documentation.

Mid-tier accounting networks are built from independent firms that agree to share a name, standards and referrals. The networks in this guide describe themselves that way: their legal pages typically state that the international body provides no client services and that each member firm is a separate legal entity. The brand therefore has to do a lot of work, because it is often the main thing the member firms have in common.

Their identities tend to be restrained. A plain wordmark, usually set in a sans and paired with one strong colour, carries across dozens of countries and languages, and a short strapline or brand promise often sits beneath it. Many networks have moved from long lists of partners’ surnames to shorter names, initials or a single shared label, and some member firms have dropped their local names to take the network brand.

Their websites follow a common pattern. A global map or country selector leads to member firms; service pages are grouped under audit and assurance, tax and advisory, with industry pages for sectors such as manufacturing, real estate, nonprofits or the public sector. Insight articles on tax changes, regulation and technology fill the news pages, and many networks publish annual revenue figures and awards in press releases.

Two further page types are typical of the profession. Transparency reports, which many audit firms publish, set out governance and quality-control arrangements. Graduate and early-career recruitment pages are prominent too, because recruiting trainees is a constant task for the profession. This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand’s founding, ownership and network, and marks clearly what rests on the firm’s own word.

A Chicago firm, a global network and a new investor.

The American firm is now Crowe LLP, based in Chicago. Accounting Today reported on 19 October 2026 that the firm ranked No. 12 on the magazine’s 2026 Top 100 Firms list, with 494 partners and more than 5,600 employees across 37 offices, and that its global network had more than 200 independent accounting and advisory firms in 130 countries — figures that differ from the larger network totals given by English Wikipedia.

The same report described a change in ownership. Crowe announced an investment from the private equity firm KKR in June 2026, with plans to spend the capital on talent, technology and innovation, and the investment closed in August 2026, Accounting Today said. In October the firm followed it with CroweONE, a shared ownership plan open to all employees without any upfront investment and to future hires; the magazine first described it as an employee stock ownership plan and later corrected that description. Crowe also started an employee recognition programme, the Forward Together Awards, and an assistance fund for employees facing unexpected financial hardship. The firm had most recently invested in Crowe Advisory Services India, the report added.

In a statement quoted by Accounting Today, chief executive Steven Strammello said KKR’s approach to broad-based ownership built on principles that had guided Crowe “for more than 80 years”.

The name itself carries that history. Horwath, the older of the two founding surnames, dropped out of the brand in 2018, while Crowe, the surname of the South Bend founder who had also served as a county auditor, became the identity of the whole network.

For a design guide, Crowe shows how a network can settle on one short surname after decades of paired and lengthening names. Compare RSM, another network that moved its member firms to one name, and Grant Thornton. For this guide we use a navy, a brass and a paper white with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Crowe’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.