CliftonLarsonAllen

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

Type	Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
Industry	Professional services
Founded	2012; merger of Clifton Gunderson (1960) and LarsonAllen (1953)
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Key people	Denny Schleper, CEO
Services	Audit Accounting Tax Consulting Advisory
Revenue	US$755 million (2017)
Number of employees	4,776 (2017)
Website	www.claconnect.com

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (known as CliftonLarsonAllen or CLA) is a professional services network and the ninth largest accountancy firm in the United States. It was established in 2012 when two top 20 U.S. firms merged: Clifton Gunderson LLP (based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and LarsonAllen LLP (based in Minneapolis, Minnesota). CliftonLarsonAllen's headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a member of the Nexia International accounting network.

Clifton Gunderson was founded in 1960 in Peoria, Illinois, as Clifton, Gunderson, Coker and DeBruyn. The firm's first acquisition occurred in Illinois in 1965. In 1973, its name was shortened to Clifton, Gunderson; it became a limited liability partnership (LLP) in 2001. From 1976 to 1978, Clifton Gunderson added firms in Colorado, Wisconsin and Missouri. From 1982 to 1987, it expanded to Maryland, Arizona, Indiana and Iowa. Expansion continued into Ohio, Texas, and Virginia in the 1990s, and by the end of the decade, Clifton Gunderson had grown to become a well-known regional player in accounting.

In 2009, Kris McMasters became the firm's fourth chief executive, and the accounting profession’s first female CEO among the top 50 firms. The year 2010 brought five acquisitions, and by 2011, Clifton Gunderson had expanded into California and Pennsylvania, becoming strongly established in the middle market. It was the 14th largest accounting firm in the US in 2010, and the largest member firm of HLB International until it left that network in 2012 after the merger with LarsonAllen.

LarsonAllen was founded by young entrepreneurs Rholan Larson and John Allen who started a small public accounting practice in the suburbs of Minneapolis in 1953. Bob Weishair joined their firm in 1957 to form Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co., LLP.

By 1987, the firm had grown to 165 employees and moved its headquarters to downtown Minneapolis. Gordy Viere was elected CEO in 1989. Under his leadership, the firm began expanding throughout Minnesota, adding offices in St. Cloud, Brainerd, and St. Paul by 1990. In the following decade, locations were opened through a series of acquisitions in Austin, Minnesota (1993); St. Louis, Missouri (1995); Charlotte, North Carolina (1998); and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1999).

In the 2000s, LarsonAllen expanded into Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington DC, and Wisconsin. The firm changed its legal name to LarsonAllen LLP (LarsonAllen) in 2007. In 2010, LarsonAllen moved into the Pacific Northwest, adding locations throughout Washington and Idaho, becoming the 18th largest accounting firm in the United States.