Sean Lilly Wilson
Principal



Sean specializes in creating and executing marketing programs with a strong sales impact. Over the past twelve years, he has led marketing and sales teams in high technology, consumer packaged goods, and service initiatives. His command of the written word -- and his keen eye for design – brings clients a rapid increase in sales and a clear path to profitability.

As the Duke Alumni Association’s Director of Member Benefits, he raised more than $1 million in dues revenue for the first time in the association’s history, a 20 percent increase from previous years. He did this while cutting production costs 30 percent, reducing the cost to raise a dollar from $0.26 to around a nickel – a figure unheard of among alumni associations.

Product design experience includes packaged goods in the natural foods sector, designing and selling a successful clothing line, logo design and company branding, and creating the Duke Alumni magnetic stripe card, which provides alumni benefits such as free parking, gym access, and store discounts.

His focus on efficiency in sales and marketing programs helped two high technology startups shorten sales cycles and fill the pipeline with qualified sales leads. But with Sean, it’s not all about efficiency. He is a creative, engaging leader who enjoys pursuing what some might think impossible. He started a lobbying organization that changed a seventy-year-old North Carolina law – a deregulation that led to the creation of hundreds of new North Carolina jobs at no additional cost to taxpayers.

Sean offers clients launch experience for the web, derived from his work with technology upstart ViOS and more recently with his Pop The Cap lobbying effort. The latter involved building an online audience of several thousand email subscribers, monthly newsletters, and blog updates. He is well-versed with Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and RSS. Savvy Marketing Group clients include First Research, a division of Hoover’s (a D&B company) and A Shred Ahead.

Sean received both an M.B.A. and Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) from Duke University and a B.A. from Wheaton College in Illinois. Sean enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters. Hobbies include cooking for friends and family, brewing beer, and gardening.