John Lilly is President of John Lilly Strategic Insights LLC (JLSI), a consulting practice he began in 2002. His firm provides advisory services primarily to Private Equity funds and Investment Banks. His focus is on all aspects of consumer-driven industries, including both branded and non-branded products and services; across all distribution channels in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

Mr. Lilly has an extensive background in consumer products management, having built more than 50 branded businesses in 25 countries over 27 years as an executive at P&G and Pillsbury. He began his career at Procter & Gamble in 1976 and was responsible at one time or another for almost all of P&G’s laundry, paper, food and beverage brands. This culminated in a six year assignment in Frankfurt, Germany, where John had managerial scope for the paper and beverage businesses in P&G’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Division. His experience base includes responsibility for Pampers®, Pringles®, Punica®, Cheer®, Always®, Folgers®, Gain®, Duncan Hines®, Sunny Delight®, Ivory Liquid®, Olestra®, Attends® and Dawn®.

In 1997, Mr. Lilly left P&G to join The Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis, first as President of Pillsbury North America and then as CEO for The Pillsbury Company worldwide. At that time, Pillsbury was a $6.8B manufacturer and marketer of such brands as Pillsbury®, Green Giant®, Häagen-Dazs®, Totinos®, Old El Paso® and Progresso®. Pillsbury had leading retail and foodservice businesses in 25 countries including China, India and Argentina. The company was sold to General Mills in 2002 for $10.5B (12.2X EBITDA) in what is broadly seen as a highly successful consolidation transaction.

After Pillsbury became part of General Mills, Mr. Lilly “changed careers,” putting his experience to work full time as an investor/advisor. Through his consultancy, he has provided investment sourcing, due diligence and operating counsel to several Private Equity funds including Calera Capital, TPG Capital, TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs PIA, Centerbridge Partners and Equity Group Investments. As a FINRA registered representative, he works with clients of Duff & Phelps (NYSE: DUF) on merger and acquisition projects. JLSI also provides strategic planning counsel using the Five Questions?One Page® and One Page Strategic Plan® processes developed with two former P&G colleagues.

Separately, Mr. Lilly is an active investor in early-stage companies through his investment company, Lateral Capital LLC. Lateral is a direct investor in 23 companies including sleep improvement devices, fund raising for colleges, debit cards for transit agencies, cancer vaccines and LED lighting.

Mr. Lilly has significant public and private Board experience. He was on the Board of NASDAQ-listed Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, a manufacturer of OTC/Rx respiratory therapies; sold in 2008 to Reckitt Benckiser. He was a nominee of InBev NV/SA as an independent director of Anheuser-Busch; in conjunction with InBev’s successful acquisition of AB. He was a Director of NYSE-listed Terra Industries, a producer of nitrogen-based fertilizer; sold to CF Industries in March, 2010. He is currently a Director of CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries, owners of Rock Bottom Breweries, Gordon Biersch and Old Chicago Pizza.

John is married to Katherine Moore-Lilly, a Chemical Engineer with a 20 year career in product development at Procter & Gamble. They have twin college-age children and split their residence between Longboat Key, Vail and their principle residence in Wayzata, Minnesota.