Meet the Team
Scott Mandell
Founder + Principal
Scott is the founder, former CEO, and board member of Enjoy Life Foods (enjoylifefoods.com) (2001-2016), a company dedicated to developing, manufacturing, and marketing great tasting gluten free and allergy friendly food products. In addition to starting Enjoy Life, Scott effectively created an entire category, which is now known as “Free From” through thought leadership, education, and certification standards. Scott advised in the creation of the gluten free certification organization (GFCO), the largest gluten free certification program in the world. Enjoy Life became the first company to have its facility and products certified by the GFCO.
In February 2015, Enjoy Life Foods was acquired by Mondelēz International, Inc., a +$30 billion multinational food company in an all-cash transaction. Scott continued to oversee the Enjoy Life business (as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mondelēz) until October 2016.
In December 2013, Scott, and his brother (Steve) established Mandell Ventures (mandellventuresllc.com), a family office partnership focused on investments in founder led early-stage food & beverage and CPG businesses.
Scott is an advisor and former CEO of The Shine Hope Company (theshinehopecompany.com), a mental health education company whose mission is to teach everyone around the world the ‘how’ to hope, based on scientific research that hope is measurable and a teachable skill.
Scott is a board member, strategic advisor, and former president of Cannabistry (cannabistry.com) (2017-2023), a company that develops, markets, and sells cannabis infused products under the brands: Tough Mama (toughmama.com), Mistifi (mistifi.com) and The Root of it All (rootusa.com) in the legal California cannabis market.
From 1993-2001, Scott was a vice president in commercial banking at American National Bank / Bank One (currently JP Morgan Chase). Scott was a lender and relationship manager for middle market business clients throughout the Chicagoland area.
Scott has been a member of the Young Presidents Organization (currently YPO-Gold) since 2009, a mentor to many upstart entrepreneurs, and has been an active alumnus at the Kellogg School of Management.
In 2016, Scott was named by Food Processing magazine as one of five company leaders who are “revolutionizing Big Food”. In 2015, he was named as an EY Entrepreneur of The Year® Award Winner, was the Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) Chicago Gala Honoree in 2014, was named to the Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40” list in 2008 and was inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2006.
Scott earned an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) in 2001 with concentrations in the areas of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Finance, and Management & Strategy. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1993 with a major in History and a minor in Business.
Scott is an avid sports fan and enjoys golfing, skiing, paddle tennis, and poker. He resides in Deerfield, IL with his wife (Dana) and their three children (Ronnie, Ryan, and Reese).
Dan Einzig
Dan has built 'Mystery' - an award-winning specialist brand design agency in London and Los Angeles - from scratch over two decades. He has also co-ventured, co-founded and co-partnered a portfolio of consumer lifestyle brands in which he has equity holdings and has a direct influence on through his brand marketing consulting. He now works in Los Angeles where he is consulting through Mystery to help develop top performing lifestyle brands, in the cannabis, food and beverage, and restaurant hospitality sectors throughout The United States.
Dan is regularly quoted within the hospitality press as ‘branding expert’ and has sat on the judging panel of major industry awards.
His roots are in the music business photographing and designing CD cover art and merchandise for rock legends such as Eric Clapton, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits and the Rolling Stones.
Having graduated from Central St Martins and worked as a freelance designer for six years, Dan founded ‘Mystery’ in 1998, a strategic, creative brand design consultancy focused on conceiving and evolving compelling brands that people connect with emotively.
Mystery is now one of the leading agencies within the F&B casual dining restaurant sector, having designed hundreds of concepts around the world.
Dan is the Chief Brand Officer and General Manager of Cannabistry, a company that develops, markets, and sells cannabis infused products under the brands: Tough Mama, Mistifi, and The Root of it All in the legal California cannabis market.
Dan is also a co-founder and/or founding equity holder of several start-ups including 'Chiktopia', a better chicken, Boba Tea franchise concept; ‘Bubbleology’, one of the fastest growing F&B concepts in the UK with over 40 sites opened in its first 3 years; 'Dub Jam', a Jerk BBQ & Rum Shack concept in Covent Garden; 'Smithfields', a hot sandwich concept in The City of London; 'Pizza Rossa' a pizza-by-slice start up; and 'Thor Drinks’, a range of soft drinks specially developed with adult flavor profiles for sale in pubs and restaurants.
Dan is a father of 3 and a self-confessed romantic - aside from living and breathing design, branding and food, other passions include family & friends, tennis, paddle & pickleball; travel, photography, music, movies, running on the beach. It’s rumored he once sang in a West End musical, but no photographic evidence exists!
Adam Smith
Adam Smith is currently the managing principal of the Codex Collective, a different kind of business consultancy with a deep expertise in cost optimization, organizational effectiveness, and client experience—structured and delivered in a way that makes more financial sense to a business owner. Adam founded the Codex Collective in 2021
Adam is the former COO and owner of Bonfire Communications (2005-2014), a company that partnered with some of the world's most respected organizations to build brands and achieve key strategic initiatives by inspiring employee belief and action. Leveraging a proprietary methodology, co-creation and creative execution, Bonfire Communications helped companies drive sustainable, long-term differentiation from the inside out. Key clients included Genentech, Intuit, Roche, Merck, GAP, General Electric, Caesars Entertainment and Chevron
In 2014, Adam led the due diligence process for the acquisition of Bonfire Communications by the Oliver Wyman Group, a global leader in management consulting. Following the acquisition, Adam served as the CAO of Lippincott (an Oliver Wyman company) and equity partner in Oliver Wyman’s Organizational Effectiveness practice until 2021. Key clients included Ecolab, American Airlines, Shell Oil, Danaher, Turner and Loyalty One.
Adam began his career in commercial banking at American National Bank / Bank One (currently JP Morgan Chase). Adam was a lender and relationship manager for middle market business clients throughout the Chicagoland area.
Adam has sat on the advisory board of several privately owned companies and was most recently on the board of six charter schools located in Oakland, California
Adam earned an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) in 1999 with concentrations in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Strategy. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1991 with a major in Finance and a minor in Psychology.
Matt Hepfinger
Matt brings a wealth of hands-on engineering, commercialization, and process optimization experience with a diverse background in food, cannabis, and personal care, developed over more than two decades, including tenures at several Fortune 500 companies.
Matt began his career at Givaudan Flavors, acting as the engineering support leader and liaison between formulation chemists and production facilities, where he successfully developed robust extraction + production processes that could be scaled up to manufacturing facilities. He then utilized this unique skill set to lead the process engineering and commercialization of entire haircare and skincare product lines, including TRESemme, Nexxus, Noxzema and St. Ives while working for Alberto Culver for 8 years (later acquired by Unilever).
Next, Matt moved into food manufacturing and led all R&D process scale-up and commercialization efforts for Quaker’s cold-form bars and granola businesses. Maintaining focus on improving production efficiencies, qualifying new equipment, and cost-avoidance through process optimization, he continued to hone his manufacturing skills.
Matt then took his MacGyver attitude and manufacturing savvy to Method, where he led the commercialization group that smoothly scaled-up and launched all new products for the company. He also provided his expertise during the design and construction of method’s LEED Platinum manufacturing facility in Chicago and was then intimately involved in all aspects of all product lines at the plant, including processing, filling, and bottle decoration. Matt continued to manage all contract manufacturer technical relationships, and proactively partnered to improve manufacturing capabilities across Method’s network.
In 2016, Matt moved into the cannabis industry, as Vice President of Commercialization at Cannabistry – a professional research, development and branding company dedicated to bringing outstanding product innovation to the legalized cannabis industry. Over his six years, he led process optimization and manufacturing development for all Cannabistry’s product lines and has brought many products and technologies to several markets. His vast experience in equipment scoping, validation, vendor relationships and product start-ups has allowed him to successfully train licensees and ensure quality products are being produced across the board in several states.
Matt earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
Matt is married and is a proud dad to his two young sons, Dax and Ozzie. Matt’s other passions include music production, snowboarding, traveling, biking, and rocking out with his family every chance he gets.