Lizanne Falsetto

Lizanne Falsetto is an American entrepreneur, advisor, mentor, wellness pioneer, and public speaker. The founder and former CEO of thinkThin®, one of the nation’s most successful and popular lifestyle brands, Lizanne devotes her time empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs and expanded her corporate advisory work through her organization - LF Advisory - to serve clients in the natural food and wellness product markets.

Early life and career

Falsetto was born in Seattle, WA to an Italian family. After graduating from John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien, Washington, Falsetto became successful in international runway and print modeling, working for Ralph Lauren, Donna Karen, and Giorgio Armani in Tokyo, Paris, Milan and Sydney, throughout the 1990s.^[1][2]

Career

An advocate of wellness and good nutrition, Falsetto identified the need in the food industry for a high protein, gluten-free, low sugar energy bar for active women on the go after modeling in the 90s. Being gluten sensitive herself, she created and launched thinkThin® bars in 1999. They were one of the first gluten-free products on the market which put her in the forefront of one of the biggest nutrition trends in the last two decades. As the Founder and CEO of thinkThin®, she steered her company to become a national lifestyle brand to its place today as a multi-million dollar household name growing into many categories. In 2012, sales of thinkThin® grew by 50% in the nutrition bar category, outselling weight loss market competitors Slim Fast in the meal-replacement bar category. That same year, Forbes estimated that the brand exceeded more than $70 million in revenue. Then in December 2015, Lizanne sold thinkThin® to global performance nutrition and ingredients group Glanbia Inc. in excess of $200 million. Falsetto also played an active role on the Board of Directors for thinkProducts under TSG Consumer Partners, LLC.

Since the sale, Lizanne began a new chapter with LF Advisory to focus on mentoring early stage entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and expand her corporate advisory work. Rare for any fast-growing startup, Lizanne borrowed no capital in the course of founding and scaling thinkThin® to its liquidity point. Her clear track records in product design, market share capture, and revenue-relevant business leadership has made her an ideal mentor to early stage entrepreneurs. LF Advisory also acts to serve a wider range of clients at the intersection of natural food, wellness, and retail. In step with the daily hurdles to strategizing and scaling a large business, she maintains a keen interest in mentoring like-minded entrepreneurs and CEOs/founders in the wellness longevity market.

Beyond being a successful businesswoman and mother of two, she is also passionate philanthropist. In 2014 and 2015, she hosted benefits for Whole Foods Market’s Whole Planet Foundation in support of micro-lending programs, assisting women out of poverty in 59 countries worldwide. An advocate and frontrunner of health and wellbeing through nutrition, she has raised money for The Dream Foundation, Susan G. Komen, and Women’s Cancer Research.

In mid-2018, Lizanne launched lizannefalsetto.com, a website focused on natural food and wellness advocacy - the keys to life and a sustainable planet.

Honors & Awards

Falsetto is a three-time Telly Award winner for producing and directing in the Best Documentary and Short Film category for films on female entrepreneurship, wellness, and nutrition.^[3] Falsetto was recognized with a Leadership Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners and the award of Entrepreneur of the Year for 2014 from Entrepreneur Magazine.

Falsetto raised $350,000.00 for women's cancer research and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation and hosted 2014 and 2015 benefits for Whole Planet Foundation micro-lending programs for women in developing countries.^[3]

Falsetto is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization, the World Presidents' Organization, and a founding member of the YPO/WPO Health & Wellness Group a global network dedicated to teaching CEOs best practices in healthy living.^[4][5]

Media Personality

A dynamic and inspiring speaker. Lizanne as has been featured on NBC, ABC and Fox and in various newspapers such as The New York Times, Business Week, Forbes, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, Advertising Age and the National Business News.

References