The Big Four are the four largest professional services networks in the world: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC. They are the four largest global accounting networks as measured by revenue. The four are often grouped because they are comparable in size relative to the rest of the market, both in terms of revenue and workforce; they are considered equal in their ability to provide a wide scope of professional services to their clients; and, among those looking to start a career in professional services, particularly accounting, they are considered equally attractive networks to work in, because of the frequency with which these firms engage with Fortune 500 companies.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network based in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of employees in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with EY, KPMG, and PwC.
Grant Thornton LLP is the American member firm of Grant Thornton International, the seventh largest accounting network in the world by combined fee income. Grant Thornton LLP is the seventh largest U.S. accounting and advisory organization. The firm operates 59 offices across the US with approximately 8,500 employees, 550 partners, and produces annual revenue in excess of US$1.9 billion.
Kearney is an American global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries worldwide. Kearney's predecessor firm was founded in Chicago by James O. McKinsey in 1926; he hired Andrew Thomas "Tom" Kearney as his first partner in 1929. After James McKinsey died in 1937, the Chicago office split into its own company, led by Tom Kearney and called McKinsey, A.T. Kearney, and Company. In 1947, it was renamed A.T. Kearney and Company.
Cushman & Wakefield Inc. is an American global commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois.
A Swiss association is a type of corporation in Swiss law. It is similar to the Anglo-American voluntary association. Unlike in Germany, a Swiss association does not need to be registered in order to obtain legal personality, but must be registered if it "conducts a commercial operation". An association can serve as a non-profit organization (NPO) or non-governmental organization (NGO) and this form is used by several Swiss sections of international NGOs such as Amnesty International, and the World Wildlife Fund, by business firms or by international organizations such as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The form can also be used by political parties and alliances, such as trade unions.
C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. is an American transportation company that includes third-party logistics (3PL). The company offers freight transportation, transportation management, brokerage and warehousing. It offers truckload, less than truckload, air freight, intermodal, and ocean transportation.
Farmland Industries was the largest agricultural cooperative in North America when it eventually sold all of its assets in 2002–04. During its 74-year history, Farmland served its farmer membership as a diversified, integrated organization, playing a significant role in agricultural markets both domestically and worldwide.
The economy of Stamford, Connecticut is robust and is considered an anomaly for having a large number of corporate headquarters in a city of its size. In the 1980s and 90s, Stamford had the third highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country, with 18 companies headquartered in the city. The only two cities that had higher concentrations in the nation were New York City and Chicago.
Hostway is a global web hosting and technology infrastructure company headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States. It provides hosting services to individuals, small to medium-sized businesses, and large corporations with web sites, databases, business applications, and managed web hosting. Hostway Services Inc. merged with Hosting.com in January 2019. The merged company rebranded to Ntirety in September 2019.
CBRE | Heery, formerly known as Heery International, Inc., was founded in 1952 by George T. Heery and his father C. Wilmer Heery Jr., and is a full-service architecture, interior design, engineering, construction management, program management, and commissioning firm with over 500 employees located in 19 offices across the United States.
Crowe Global, commonly referred to as Crowe, previously Crowe Horwath International, is a multinational professional services network. It is the 8th largest global accounting network in the world by revenue. The network consists of more than 220 firms with over 40,000 employees in 130 countries.
SoftServe, Inc., founded in 1993 in Lviv, Ukraine, is a technology company specializing in consultancy services and software development. SoftServe provides services in the fields of big data, Internet of things, cloud computing, DevOps, e-commerce, computer security, experience design, and health care. With its United States headquarters in Austin, Texas and European headquarters in Lviv, Ukraine, the company employs more than 12,000 people in 58 offices in 14 countries. It is one of the largest employers for software developers in Eastern Europe, and the largest outsourcing and outstaffing IT company in Ukraine.
Outsource Partners International (OPI) was acquired by EXL in June 2011. The acquisition marked the end of F&A outsourcing of OPI. OPI was a multinational company with headquarters in New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA. It operates from more than a dozen global locations throughout the US, UK, India, Bulgaria, and Malaysia. OPI was formed in 2002 through the acquisition of big four accounting firm's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) division and itAccounts, a finance and accounting BPO company with an offshore F&A outsourcing facility in Bangalore, India. It offers finance, accounting and tax outsourcing services.
Hill International, Inc. is an American construction consulting firm. Founded in 1976, the company's corporate headquarters are in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Hill provides program and project management, construction management, cost engineering and estimating, quality assurance, inspection, scheduling, risk management, and claims resolution and avoidance services to clients with major construction projects worldwide.
Eide Bailly LLP is a Trans-Mississippi American mid-tier public accounting and ancillary professional services firm headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, although incorporated in Minnesota. It primarily provides tax services, assurance, consulting and advisory services to its clients and is a member firm of HLB International, an accounting network.
CPAConnect is an affiliate association of CPAmerica made up of small, independent Certified Public Accountant firms and sole practitioners in the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico. CPAConnect is an alliance of CPAmerica, Inc., one of the nation’s largest associations of major independent CPA firms. Both associations operate out of CPAmerica’s headquarters building in Gainesville, Florida.
An accounting network or accounting association is a professional services network whose principal purpose is to provide members resources to assist the clients around the world and hence reduce the uncertainty by bringing together a greater number of resources to work on a problem. The networks and associations operate independently of the independent members. The largest accounting networks are known as the Big Four.
Aon Hewitt was a provider of human capital and management consulting services headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois in the United States. From 500 offices in 120 countries, it provided consulting, outsourcing, and reinsurance brokerage services. The "Aon Hewitt" brand and legal entities have now been absorbed into the "Aon" business, leaving obsolete the names "Hewitt" and "Aon Hewitt."
BDO is an international network of public accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory firms that provide professional services under the name BDO. It is the fifth-largest accounting network in the world. Global fee income of the member firms in the network for the year ended 30 September 2023, including the members of their exclusive alliances, totaled US$ 14 billion. Each BDO member firm is an independent legal entity in its own country. The network, founded in 1963 as Binder Seidman International Group by firms from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, is coordinated by BDO Global Coordination B.V., with an office in Zaventem, Belgium. In 1973, the organisation adopted the name BDO, made up from the initials of the three founding firms: Binder (UK), Dijker (Netherlands) and Otte (Germany).
