Before building a career on the speaking circuit, Vance served as Director of Millennial Engagement at Monsanto, where he was hired to do what most companies avoid: put a human face on the most controversial brand in agriculture. He spent years in rooms where people disagreed deeply — and learned that the difference between productive conflict and destructive conflict comes down to communication technique, not personality.
Earlier, Vance worked as a Communications Strategist for the World Bank Group, advising on how to present development initiatives to skeptical audiences across cultures. He is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Kenya, where he learned that communication under pressure is universal — the stakes just look different.
He holds a Master’s degree in Cross-Cultural Negotiations from the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy.
“One of the greatest orators and advocates — in any discipline — I’ve ever witnessed.”
Today Vance runs Articulate Ventures, a company built around the idea that everyone communicates — and almost no one was taught how to do it well.
Keynote speaking is the core of the practice. Vance delivers talks on negotiation, storytelling, conflict resolution, and how ideas spread through organizations. Every engagement is customized through a pre-event call with the organizer — he learns the audience, the industry tensions, and what the talk needs to accomplish. He does not give the same speech twice.
Interest-Based Communication is a two-day intensive course Vance created, drawing on negotiation theory, professional interviewing technique, and two decades of work in high-stakes conversations. Teams and individuals attend at his St. Louis studio. Corporate groups book private sessions.
Legacy Interviews is Vance’s other company — a service that records individuals and couples sharing their life stories on camera, so future generations can see and hear the people who shaped their family. He has conducted hundreds of these interviews, and the skills he uses to draw out a reluctant 80-year-old farmer are the same ones he teaches from the stage.
“In a speaker series of the most acclaimed scientists and thinkers in the country, from MIT to Harvard, Vance’s was the most thought-provoking and unexpected.”
- Addressed 300,000+ people across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia
- Former Director of Millennial Engagement, Monsanto — communications strategy for the most controversial company in agriculture
- Former Communications Strategist, World Bank Group
- Returned Peace Corps Volunteer — Kenya
- M.A. Cross-Cultural Negotiations, Seton Hall School of Diplomacy
- Board of Directors, FCS Financial — a seven-billion-dollar agricultural lending cooperative in Missouri
- Creator of the Interest-Based Communication framework and two-day course
- Founder, Legacy Interviews — hundreds of recorded life stories for families across the country
- Host, The Vance Crowe Podcast — 450+ episodes featuring U.S. Senators, farmers, scientists, and founders
“You truly were one of the best, if not the best, keynote speakers we’ve had the pleasure to work with.”
Vance works across sectors, but his depth is in organizations where people negotiate, lead teams, or navigate public controversy. His client list includes agricultural cooperatives, financial services firms, pharmaceutical companies, technology startups, trade associations, and university systems.
He is equally effective in a ballroom of 2,000 and a boardroom of 12. The format changes — the ability to shift how people think about communication does not.