Crawford Pounds was PwC’s managing partner in Charlotte for ten years from 2014 to 2024 and for much of that time led their Carolinas practice as well.  Crawford also served as the Firm’s Southeast Market Managing market for a number of those years where he led a team of approximately 5,000 partners and staff.   In each of his managing partner roles, he was responsible for driving the PwC brand, strategy and growth while also overseeing client service, talent development and community impact. Prior to that, he led the Firm’s audit and assurance practice in the Carolinas as well.   

Throughout his over 35-year career with PwC he served clients from both an audit and consulting standpoint, in a variety of industries, including pharmaceutical, health services, retail, consumer, industrial manufacturing, and technology, and worked with public, private and private equity backed companies. He has worked with a broad range of companies from large multinational corporations to start-up and growth companies and has significant experience navigating complex SEC and regulatory matters.

He has extensive governance experience, having worked with numerous corporate boards in his various client and firm leadership roles with PwC, and was a frequent presenter at audit committees. In addition to accounting and financial matters, he worked with clients and boards around areas such as enterprise risk, DE&I, ESG, M&A transactions, business and system transformation, forensics, strategy and cybersecurity, to name a few. 

He has been a passionate servant in the community with a focus on areas such as literacy, racial equity, and digital inclusion. He has served on numerous boards of nonprofit organizations where he was very active on committees and has played an integral role in a number of executive search processes, as well. He currently serves as the Board Chair of both the YMCA Association of Greater Charlotte and Read Charlotte.    

He has a long history of developing leaders and was the national leader of PwC’s Partner Candidate Leadership Development program where he was responsible for the upskilling and development of future partner candidates. He also previously served on the Firm’s partner admission process nationally.     

Crawford began his career in PwC’s Birmingham, Alabama practice, after graduating with honors from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science in accountancy.  Upon becoming a Partner with PwC in 1999, he moved to New Jersey where he served in the Firm’s New York Metro practice before moving to Charlotte in 2008. He is licensed as a certified public accountant and qualifies as an audit committee financial expert under SEC rules.