Longtime bedding executive Ed Lilly, who died in December 2025 at age 81 after a career that saw him rise to senior positions at Sealy and Serta, is remembered by former industry colleagues as a strong leader who built both companies into powerhouses while championing consumer product safety—all with a smile on his face.
Lilly spent 11 years at Sealy, where he rose to become senior vice president of account sales and marketing, before moving to Serta in 1990. He spent 14 years there as CEO and president. Later in his career, he ran consulting firm Lilly Management Group with longtime colleagues Susan Ebaugh and Bob Sabalaskey. Lilly also served on the executive committee at the International Sleep Products Association and was a strong supporter of the Better Sleep Council and the Sleep Products Safety Council.
Al Klancnik, former vice president of manufacturing and operations at both Sealy and Serta, whose time overlapped significantly with Lilly’s at both companies, recalls that Lilly had “a great moral compass” in advocating for product safety at a time when children not infrequently were accidentally setting and then dying in bedroom fires.
“We were fighting to make our product safer,” Klancnik says. “Serta unilaterally, in 2003, converted all products—at a cost increase—to be open-flame resistant.” Then in 2007, spurred in part by Serta’s lobbying, Congress amended the Flammable Fabrics Act to require that all companies do the same, despite some industry resistance, he says.
Along the way, Lilly built both Sealy and Serta into industry giants. “He knew he couldn’t do everything by himself,” Klancnik says. “He built the team to position the company to move forward and become No. 1. He believed in developing the people. Sealy and Serta were very parallel in the way they grew. … He was a visionary who believed that the unique features of the product line, brand recognition, and national advertising were critical to gaining sales growth, tied to national accounts.”
Ryan Trainer, past president of the Mattress Recycling Council and ISPA, recalls Lilly as a “wonderful man” with robust leadership abilities and passionate viewpoints, as well as a creative, funny person who launched the Serta “Counting Sheep” campaign 25 years ago. “That was one example of his creativity,” Trainer says. Serta’s “We Make the World’s Best Mattress” campaign was also begun under Lilly’s tenure.
Trainer recalls that Lilly’s sense of humor once shone in the aftermath of a particularly heated board meeting, when he showed up for the next meeting two or three months later wearing a silly Halloween mask. “On the one hand, ‘Is it safe to show my face?’ ” Trainer says. “On the other hand, it was about breaking the ice—‘No hard feelings, let’s move on to the next issue.’ ”
