As a leader in Booz Allen’s finance organization, I work closely with senior leaders to drive optimal financial performance across the enterprise.
I’ve driven my own career in part by embracing Booz Allen’s entrepreneurial spirit. You have to look for opportunities to take on new challenges, stretch yourself, put yourself in a position to fail or succeed. I strive to help my team do the same by being an accessible, approachable, and transparent leader who empowers them to succeed.
Tim Lawrence is a senior leader in Booz Allen’s corporate finance organization. He and his team work closely with senior leaders across the firm’s market sectors to drive optimal financial performance and deliver long-term value for clients and other stakeholders. He also provides key business and financial insights, recommendations, and analytics to Booz Allen’s chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and the Leadership Team.
Tim returns to finance after several years in our defense business where he directed and oversaw the delivery of Booz Allen services and solutions to Navy Headquarters and Fleet organizations, and the Marine Corps. Earlier in an executive rotational role, Tim led our corporate finance team, including pricing, financial operations, and financial planning and analysis.
Tim joined Booz Allen in 1999 after serving in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer. In his 20+ years at Booz Allen, Tim has served in client-service roles supporting a wide spectrum of federal and commercial clients.
Tim has an M.B.A. in finance and an M.S. in management and operations research from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.A. in industrial and organizational psychology from North Carolina State University.
How long have you been with the firm? I’ve been with Booz Allen for more than 20 years. Prior to that, I was in the Navy, then went to business school for finance, as well as graduate school for essentially applied statistics. I have been in both client-facing roles across federal and commercial markets, and rotational roles in finance focused primarily on driving financial performance, and enhancing analytics, metrics, reporting, forecasting, and planning activities.
What is the best business advice you have ever received? Be yourself, really understand what your strengths are, and try to maximize your performance—your broad performance, whether it’s functional delivery, client engagement, or staff management and career development—use your strengths to be able to maximize each of those. Similarly, learn how to recognize, mitigate, and ultimately, improve upon your weaknesses.
Another one, and at Booz Allen it’s particularly important: Take control of your own career. The way you succeed here is to be willing to take on those stretch opportunities, take on challenges that move you out of your comfort zone, and be willing to sacrifice in the short term to ultimately succeed in the long term.
What did you want to be when you grew up? A truck driver. I wanted to drive big rigs. I grew up in a very rural area. No one in my family or extended family had ever been to college, a very blue-collar upbringing. We had family friends who were truck drivers; I knew them, and they were cool. Being a kid and driving a big rig seemed like a pretty awesome job.
What drives you, what makes you passionate about your work at Booz Allen? Being able to do interesting work—work that’s important to our clients’ missions—that drives me. I enjoy digging into the numbers and talking strategy, and I really value bringing the two together to advance our clients’ priorities in ways that even they aren’t aware are possible. Lastly, the people. We have the most talented and dedicated people in the industry. I’m honored and humbled to be able to work with them every day.
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