July 19, 2024
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | cebulaj@lei.org
Lilly Endowment Elects Rebecca Lilly
to its Board of Directors
INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly Endowment Inc. has elected Rebecca E. Lilly to serve on its board of directors, effective July 17, 2024. Lilly is currently Vice President, Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley based in Greenwich, Conn., where she serves both private clients and institutions, including nonprofits, private foundations and endowments, business retirement plans, and municipal and other government agency pension and defined contribution plans.
A great-granddaughter of J.K. Lilly, Jr., one of the Endowment’s founders, Lilly is a native of Indianapolis and a graduate of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. She received a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. She has served on several nonprofit boards of directors and advisory boards, including the Yale School of Management’s International Center for Finance Advisory Board, the investment committees of Christ’s Church in Rye, N.Y., and Christ Church Cathedral Foundation in Indianapolis, the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy Board of Visitors, which she chaired from 2017-2020, and the Heritage Museum & Gardens Board of Trustees in Sandwich, Mass.
Committed to her family’s legacy of philanthropy, Lilly compiled with her father, Eli Lilly II, the book Three Generations of the Lilly Family in Indiana, which was published in 2022 by Indiana Historical Society Press. The book is a collection of essays about four men from three generations of the Lilly family (Col. Eli Lilly, J.K. Lilly Sr., Eli Lilly and J.K. Lilly Jr.) who dedicated their lives to Eli Lilly and Company and supported a multitude of civic and philanthropic efforts in Indianapolis and Indiana as well as throughout the country.
The Endowment also has elected Eli Lilly II (Ted) as an emeritus director. He formerly had served as a member of the Endowment’s board of directors since 1976.
“My colleagues and I are deeply grateful for Ted Lilly’s nearly 50 years of service on Lilly Endowment’s board of directors,” said N. Clay Robbins, the Endowment’s chairman and CEO. “He served on the Endowment’s board longer than any other director in the Endowment’s 87-year history, beginning his service when his great uncle, Eli Lilly, was on the board. His wise and perceptive comments have contributed greatly to our deliberations as has his stewardship of our founders’ aims and values, and we are pleased that he will remain engaged with the Endowment as an emeritus director.”
“We also are delighted that Becky Lilly has agreed to join the Endowment’s board. Her dedication to the aims and values of her ancestors who founded the Endowment and her significant experience with the programs and investments of philanthropic and other nonprofit organizations will be of great value to the Endowment and enhance its many charitable endeavors,” added Robbins.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion. Although the Endowment maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana, it funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion.