Johannes Burlin

Johannes Burlin is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Tilia Holdings, a Chicago-based private investment firm he co-founded in 2017 that invests exclusively in the food and nutrition supply chain. A native of Sweden, he brings more than 25 years of operating-executive experience in food, life sciences and nutrition. Immediately prior to Tilia he was Partner and President of Safe Foods International, a group focused solely on investments in nutrition and safe food and water.

His operating career spans senior roles across the food-safety and life-sciences industries. He served as President of Silliker North America (2008–2013), a leading food-safety testing and laboratory business; as President and CEO of Advanced Bioscience Laboratories, a Mérieux Alliance company (2003–2008, and Chairman through 2013); and as Vice President of Business Development for the Mérieux Group in Lyon, France (2000–2003). Earlier he was General Counsel and IP lead for bioMérieux, Inc.'s U.S. subsidiary (1995–2000), and began his career practicing corporate law at Bryan Cave.

Burlin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Hamilton College and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center. He and his wife reside in Chicago; his wife is a co-founder (2011) and member of the Sustainable Local Food Investment Group (SLoFIG), a Chicago-based mission-driven angel network.

At Tilia, Burlin co-leads a firm whose thesis pairs private-equity capital with deep, hands-on operating expertise in food-supply-chain services. The firm emphasizes governance, ESG integration and an operationally intensive, "collaborating at parity" model to build companies that make the food supply chain safer, more nutritious and more sustainable.

• Invests exclusively in the "farm-to-fork" food and nutrition supply chain, principally in outsourced, B2B services companies serving food & beverage, supplements/botanicals, and related regulated end markets.
• Targets lower-middle-market privately held companies and corporate carve-outs that provide "mission-critical, time-sensitive" services — food safety, laboratory testing, regulatory/quality compliance, food science, agronomy, environmental health, cold storage and specialty ingredients.
• Pursues control (majority) investments, then grows them through governance, operational improvement and add-on acquisitions — not passive minority or seed-stage checks.
• Stated firm mission: to partner with service companies "as they adapt to marketplace trends and regulatory requirements," and "through control investments and an orientation towards governance and operations, grow distinctive companies that advance health, support resilient supply chains and serve the greater good."
• Values Burlin's own operating background (running testing labs and life-sciences businesses) as a differentiator — Tilia positions itself as an operator-led investor in its niche.