John Lilly Strategic Insights LLC (JLSI) is the advisory business of former Pillsbury CEO, John Lilly.

JLSI provides advisory services to growth-oriented businesses with a primary focus on consumer-driven industries, both branded and non-branded products and services, across all distribution channels in the US, Europe and Middle East. Mr. Lilly is an active growth equity investor in Early-Stage companies through our sister investment company, Lateral Capital. Lateral has invested in 33 companies including sleep improvement devices, college fund raising, debit cards and LED lighting for agriculture. Investments are sourced directly and through Angel groups across the US: Golden Seeds (New York), Tamiami Angels (Naples), Band of Angels (Palo Alto), Twin Cities Angels (Minneapolis) and Seraph Group.

Mr. Lilly built over 50 branded businesses in 25 countries as an executive at Procter & Gamble and CEO at The Pillsbury Company managing laundry, paper, food and beverage brands, culminating in a six-year assignment in Frankfurt, Germany, managing paper and beverage businesses in P&G’s European, Middle Eastern and Africa Divisions. In 1997, Mr. Lilly joined The Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis as President of Pillsbury North America, then as CEO for The Pillsbury Company worldwide. At that time, Pillsbury was a $6.8B manufacturer. The company was sold to General Mills in 2002 for $10.5B (12.2X EBITDA).

In 2002, Mr. Lilly began work full time as an investor/advisor. 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. A FINRA registered representative, he works with clients Morgan Joseph TriArtisan on mergers and acquisitions. 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.