Lauren Crowe on Navigating Career Change Through Leadership

Lauren Crowe’s career in finance began with an opening that happened to be available. After college, she went to Washington, D.C., where she worked in politics, first on Capitol Hill and then on political campaigns. A campaign role in compliance and accounting introduced her to work that would ultimately shape her professional direction.

Looking back, Crowe sometimes considers how a different opening might have changed that direction. A fundraising position could have pointed toward sales, while advance work might have led to project management. The question is not simply hypothetical. It captures a central theme of her career: a path can become coherent in retrospect even when it was not planned in advance.

Finding a Place in Finance

After leaving campaign work, Crowe moved into a finance position supporting a government contractor onsite at the Pentagon. The experience helped her identify what she did and did not want from her work. She was interested in company finance rather than remaining in a customer-site role, and financial planning and analysis offered a route into that work.

She later joined HP and spent the next decade developing her knowledge of FP&A. Over time, her responsibilities expanded beyond technical finance. Her professional experience came to include strategic planning, operational finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, cost transformation, and financial systems modernization. Now a Global Vice President of Finance at Standard BioTools, she has worked with finance teams and organizational leaders across life sciences, technology, and high-growth environments.

Although that progression forms a clear story on paper, Crowe does not describe it as the result of a fixed destination. Managers and mentors have played an important role in helping her evaluate opportunities. Their guidance allowed her to move forward without requiring every step to fit a predetermined plan.

Defining the Next Role by Its Substance

Crowe is now preparing for another transition. Her company is going through a reverse merger, and she expects that the acquiring company will not retain her or her team. As she speaks with recruiters, she is again encountering a familiar question: What, exactly, should come next?

She may not have one title in mind, but she has identified the conditions under which she wants to contribute. She wants to lead a team, continue learning, and work within a healthy culture. She is particularly interested in a strong leadership group whose members are direct, honest, transparent, and committed to growth.

This distinction between title and substance gives her search a practical center. Rather than forcing her experience into one narrowly defined position, Crowe is evaluating whether an opportunity would let her support people, develop her own capabilities, and help finance operate as a proactive business partner. Her background in translating complex financial information into business decisions remains relevant, but so does the environment in which that work occurs.

Leadership Measured Through Other People’s Growth

Among Crowe’s proudest professional experiences is watching employees develop over time. Several team members have followed her across companies, giving her the opportunity to see their progress through different roles and stages of their careers. For Crowe, that continuity makes leadership both a privilege and a responsibility.

Her approach draws on lessons from the full range of managers she has encountered. The strongest examples have stayed with her, particularly those who balanced support with clear expectations. She seeks to offer her own teams a similar foundation through coaching, empowerment, accountability, and transparency.

That balance is important. Supporting employees does not mean removing standards, and accountability does not require withholding empathy. Crowe aims to be an anchor for her teams: someone who creates room for people to work through challenges while remaining clear about responsibilities and performance.

Moving Forward Without a Fixed Map

Crowe’s current search reflects the same openness that has marked her career from its earliest stages. She is not presenting uncertainty as a lack of direction. Instead, she is defining direction through the kind of work she wants to do and the impact she hopes to have.

Wherever she lands next, her priorities are already taking shape. She wants to keep learning, contribute within a candid and growth-oriented culture, and continue developing teams. The title may still be undecided, but the leadership values guiding her next step are not.