Julie E. Gilbert

Today, as Founder and CEO of Full Throttle Growth & Capital, Julie and her team work globally with more than 50 private-equity portfolio companies and public companies, accelerating growth toward exits and IPOs and leading public company growth turnarounds. Her experience spans technology, AI, cybersecurity, financial services, insurance, consumer businesses, professional services, energy, defense, manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, biotechnology, sports and entertainment. She also brings nearly two decades of partnership with the U.S. federal government on specialized technology, intelligence, cybersecurity, secure communications and mission-critical assignments, including service as co-founder of a national security AI and intelligence decision command platform.

At McKinsey, she served as a partner and Certified Technology Partner, and as the most distinguished CEO-in-Residence entrepreneur, standing up the business-building practice globally while envisioning and building businesses at public and private companies. At Best Buy, Julie rose to SVP of Enterprise Growth and was a key leader in the company’s expansion from $15 billion to more than $45 billion in revenue during her tenure. She founded Magnolia Home Theatre, the first store within a store and Best Buy’s luxury business; a services business; Virgin Mobile, the first “burner” prepaid phone, which went public 18 months after its creation; and WOLF, the female consumer engagement platform that brought more than $4.4 billion in revenue to Best Buy in less than five years. Across her corporate and entrepreneurial career, she has envisioned, built and scaled 18 businesses, including four that achieved unicorn status. She went on to found PreciouStatus, a first-ever encrypted, AI-powered communications SaaS company that she scaled to 178 countries before a successful exit. At Deloitte, as a Senior Manager in corporate tax and M&A, she created the first platform of its kind in the M&A space and was key to building several other business offerings.

Julie’s board advisory experience began at Deloitte, and her governance experience includes Board Chair and Vice Chair roles and leadership of governance, strategy, technology and audit committees across public, private-equity, venture-backed and family-owned organizations. She serves on the boards of Telestream and The Monroe Institute and on the advisory boards of Roz.AI and Amateras Capital. An active, licensed CPA, NACD Governance Fellow and Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, she helps boards connect financial discipline, innovation and accountable execution to sustainable growth and stakeholder value.

Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, IMD Switzerland, Bloomberg, Time, BusinessWeek and NY Weekly, and she has been interviewed by the Financial Times. She serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Private Company Director, contributes to that publication and the World Economic Forum, and is an international keynote speaker with multiple TEDx talks and speaking engagements for companies including Verizon, Microsoft and Amazon.