Martha Pease
Operating Advisor
Operating Advisor
Background
Background
Martha Pease is an Operating Advisor at Staley Capital with a strong track record of unlocking brand equity to accelerate growth, repositioning legacy businesses, and preparing companies for successful IPO and acquisition outcomes. She brings deep experience across advertising, marketing, strategy consulting, tech startups, and investing—serving as CMO, CEO, board director, and advisor to Fortune 500 and PE-backed companies alike.
As Chief Marketing Officer of Neutrogena, she positioned the brand for expansion in the mass drug retail channel, helping to drive over $60M in incremental revenue and prepare the business for its $1B acquisition by Johnson & Johnson. At Victoria’s Secret, she served as CMO during a pivotal multi-year transformation, crafting the brand narrative in support of its $5.6B IPO. Earlier, as agency lead, she partnered with Domino’s leadership to rebuild brand trust and relevance—contributing to its turnaround and subsequent $1B IPO.
She was also instrumental in Apple’s early brand reset during Steve Jobs’ first departure—championing the agency campaign that repositioned the Macintosh for business users, helping to re-establish Apple’s strategic foothold in the market. As a Partner and Global Practice Leader at The Boston Consulting Group, she advised multiple private equity firms and target companies on investment diligence, growth acceleration, and brand-driven value creation.
Martha began her career at DDB and later led major global accounts at McCann, JWT, and BBDO, delivering award-winning campaigns for IBM, L’Oréal Paris, and Pizza Hut. She is the founder of Illustra Partners, a strategic advisory firm serving CEOs, boards, and PE firms. She also co-developed Think Like a CMO, an executive platform built with Google to help leadership teams drive enterprise growth by earning customer trust.
She is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
