About Lamppost Advisory
A lamppost makes the way ahead clear enough to walk with confidence. Lamppost Advisory holds itself to the same fundamental standard: clarity first, then the hands-on work of turning it into impact.
Lamppost Advisory is led by Sheldon D’Mello, an operations and transformation leader with experience across utilities, retail, apparel, hospitality and the circular economy, from Fortune 500 enterprises to a Series D startup. That includes rebuilding enterprise planning at a $25B utility, redesigning go-to-market operations for global apparel and multi-category brands, unifying the omnichannel operating model of a specialty retailer, and building a circular-economy program from zero.
Earlier in his career, he led the deployment of customer-facing in-store technology for a national big-box general merchandise retailer and delivered critical merchandising and operations initiatives within a major retailer’s international market entry.
How the work gets done: Translating vision into details. Getting those details executed, personally or by leading the organization’s teams. Making clarity and accountability unmistakable. Obsessing over the lived experience of everyone the work touches, inside and outside the organization.
Clarity to move forward with confidence, and hands-on help to
get you there.
Where the perspective comes from
People first. Guided by a conviction that people matter more than the plan, and that caring about someone sometimes means telling them the hard thing plainly. Years of living and working across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia taught Sheldon to listen first, and to respect that different people hear hard things differently, and reach the same goal in different ways.
Service-centered. Early career in hospitality taught what it means to be customer-centric: making a great experience happen consistently, rooted in authenticity, attention to detail, pride in quality, the right sense of urgency, and teams working as one. It also meant balancing what the client or decision-maker needed with what the end-customer experienced, and it left a lasting respect for the people on every side of the work: those who decide it, those who deliver it, and those who live with it.
Governance from the inside. Elected president of a K-8 school advisory board, chairing governance and strategic planning and serving as the link between the board and school leadership. It’s the client’s side of the table, the same seat many nonprofit and education leaders sit in.
Outside of work. Strength and health, pursued with curiosity and intensity. Sport, for the joy of it. Music, self-taught and challenging, for the way it opens the mind and calms it. Cooking, for the love of it. Together, a practice of self-improvement, and a reminder that craft and progress come from steady, unglamorous repetition.
Sheldon D’Mello
Founder, Lamppost Advisory
MBA, Ivey Business School · Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner · AI-Enabled Workflow Design · Business Sustainability in the Circular Economy · Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (in progress)
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Available for engagements across the US, on-site or remote.
Where plans break down
Strategic Translation & Governance ·
Execution, Measurement & Improvement
Ways to work together
Advisory · Diagnostic Sprint · Transformation Engagement · Fractional Leadership
The work behind the claims
Utility & Energy · Retail & Apparel · Sustainability & Circular Economy