2018 TechTable Summit

Design is Meija's not-so-secret weapon for creating a better food future. As Senior Director leading IDEO Design for Food, Meija brings a background in clinical psychology to design brands, products and experiences—from a fast casual restaurant designed to change the perception of Indian food, to new beverage products that inspire healthy behavior change, to a collaboration with the UAE government to transform their nation’s relationship with food. Meija also serves on the board of Eat REAL, a non-profit creating transparency into the nutrition and sustainability of food service operators.

Elizabeth is Sr. Director Environmental Health at Dig Inn. After graduating from Vassar College, she began her career in food through a series of stints at restaurants in New York and Rome which eventually led her to a line cook position at Del Posto in 2006. Once there, she quickly rose through the ranks to kitchen manager. In 2009, Elizabeth began to lead the charge on food safety and sustainability practices for the entire Batali Bastianich Hospitality Group. Most recently Elizabeth was Director of Food Safety and Sustainability for both Eataly and B&BHG, before joining Dig Inn in July of 2018.  As a result of her time in NYC kitchens, Elizabeth also founded a (soon-to- be) non profit Women in Hospitality United (WiHU), an organization committed to creating safe(r) spaces to gather, foster leadership and develop solutions and provide policies that set new standards for equity, accountability, and transparency in the industry.

Rob Wilder is co-founder with José Andrés of ThinkFoodGroup (TFG), the innovative management company responsible for renowned dining concepts in Washington, DC, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Puerto Rico and Mexico including Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel, minibar by José Andrés, China Chilcano, Beefsteak, The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotels, China Poblano at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and Mi Casa at the Ritz Carlton Reserve in Dorado Beach. TFG also handles José’s additional creative endeavors encompassing cookbooks, food products, television programming, education, concept consulting, and new restaurant projects. Restaurant Hospitality recently named ThinkFoodGroup as the most innovative multi-concept company in country.

Recently Rob founded the investment group FoodTech Angels to support the growth of innovative early-stage companies that are leveraging technology to change the world of Food.  In its first year FoodTech Angels syndicates invested $1.5 million into nine portfolio companies.  As part of his effort to support promising entrepreneurs Rob serves as advisor to several early stage companies, on the Advisory Board and Mentor at the Halcyon Incubator, and mentor at the Conscious Venture Lab and Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.

In 2018 Rob and partners are launching WineGame, a new software platform which will bring a new fun and educational technology to the worlds of wine and hospitality.

Nabeel’s first day in America was also the first day he joined high school, started learning English, and got a job in the restaurant industry. Today he is the Chief Marketing Officer at the New York City-based organic burger joint, Bareburger. It has been in existence for 9 years and already has 47 locations in 5 countries. Their motto is to sell the most delicious burger, from the most sustainable partners, in a restaurant that will make you feel good. Being a super small company, they have to focus on technology that is innovative, affordable and most importantly measurable. Nabeel also relies heavily on AI and automation.

Adam Landsman is the Co-Founder of Sunday In Brooklyn, a neighborhood restaurant serving brunch and dinner daily in the heart of Williamsburg Brooklyn. Over the course of his career, he has brought many concepts to life, grown them to multi-outlet stores across the country and around the world. He has worked with small start-ups, medium size restaurant groups, and hotels. With Sunday In Brooklyn’s success, he has also proven himself as visionary on his own. Adam has over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry, with 13 of those years in New York City. After working as a Captain at some of the most prestigious restaurants in Washington D.C., 1789 and Kinkead’s, he began his NYC career at Gotham Bar & Grill and Jean Georges. Adam’s natural leadership became apparent when taking his first management position at Danny Meyer’s The Modern. He quickly rose to General Manager at Chef Gray Kunz’ Grayz before opening the first EMM Group Restaurant as General Manager of Abe & Arthur’s. His integral part in the success of the restaurant lead to becoming Chief Operating Officer, where he oversaw all operations including construction and opening of all new operations. While at EMM Group (Catch, Lexington Brass, Abe & Arthur’s, SL, The General, Finale, Tenjune), Adam was responsible for opening eight restaurants, bars and clubs grossing over $60mm in revenue on top of managing the day-to-day operations. In 2012, Adam was recognized by Zagat in their 30 under 30 as one of the most talented up-and-comers in hospitality. When Major Food Group (Carbone, Dirty French, Santina, Parm, Sadelle’s, ZZ’s Clam Bar, Torrisi) needed a driven and experienced leader to match their ambitious and successful company, Adam stepped in and became their Chief Operating Officer. At Major Food Group, he was once again in charge of all day-to-day operations including opening five restaurants and two commissaries in less than a year. Adam has measured restaurant industry success and a progressive outlook on the landscape of hospitality. He is now applying all of this practical knowledge to helping others.

Adam’s passion for the food industry grew after two somewhat cliched encounters—a visit to an asparagus farm, and a poignant reading of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. From both, he developed a set of standards that would guide his work at Dig Inn, the fine-fast restaurant concept serving fine dining quality ingredients with an affordable price tag, choosing responsibly sourced ingredients and creating homemade meals. Adam’s dedication to culinary excellence and sustainable sourcing is central to his business model. Prior to his foray into the restaurant business, Adam graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Business Economics from Brown University, before working in finance at Wexford Capital and Merrill Lynch.

Jennifer Bell is the Executive Vice President of Marketing at Lettuce Entertain You. Jennifer has played a pivotal role in growing our marketing department on both a store and corporate level. Jennifer oversees and manages all facets of marketing, including PR, Frequent Diner loyalty program, gift cards, direct mail, data insights, digital, mobile app, email marketing, social media, web and graphic design.

Jennifer has grown up in restaurants with her career at Lettuce starting more than 18 years ago as a server at Maggiano’s. After she received her Mass Communications degree from Winona State University, she joined the Lettuce team and quickly progressed through the marketing department at Lettuce.

In her most recent role, Jennifer has created a great synergy between technology and marketing with the goal of enhancing our guest experience. She also focuses on maintaining Lettuce’s reputation, building customer loyalty and advancing our digital presence.

As CEO and co-founder of Omnivore, Mike Wior, leads his team in bringing to market powerful and seamless technologies transforming how the hospitality industry engages with consumers. His major focus is driving and establishing strategic partner and stakeholder relationships that are key in growing Omnivore. With an extensive background in cloud and security solutions for organizations including Wells Fargo Bank, Adobe, and Google, Mike also serves as a board member and advisor for several fast-rising restaurant technology companies. When he’s not crisscrossing the country for Omnivore business, he is a passionate fly fisherman.

Kelly Seeman has spent the past eight years cultivating her passion in food technology and has first-hand experience partnering with restaurant chains on digital media, on-demand delivery, loyalty, and e-commerce. 

Prior to joining Facebook in May 2016 as Global Sales Industry Manager, Kelly pursued her desire to work at start-ups when she was hired by Postmates to be their first General Manager & Partnerships Lead. There she was focused on activating and managing merchant and brand partnerships on a local level. She also worked closely with the Operations, CS and Product teams to improve the customer and restaurant experience. Prior to Postmates, Kelly had a brief stint at Belly, a universal loyalty program, where she was the SVP, Enterprise and oversaw the 7-Eleven relationship.

Before diving into the world of start-ups, Kelly spent over 11 years at Google where she launched Google’s QSR/Fast Casual/Casual Dining practice helping the C-Suite undergo digital transformations. She was a founding member of Google’s Agency team and was intimately involved in the launch of Google AgencyLand, a Google product which has since been rebranded to Google Partners. Kelly began her career at Accenture and spent three years after that at AOL Time Warner.

Jordan Salcito is a wine veteran, with over a decade spent in the industry. She began her career in New York as hostess at wd~50 before becoming a prep cook at DANIEL, sommelier and manager at Eleven Madison Park, then eventually Director of Wine Special Projects for David Chang's Momofuku restaurants. An impassioned entrepreneur, Jordan is the founder behind RAMONA, an organic Italian grapefruit wine spritz, and Bellus Wines.

Jordan continues to receive widespread recognition for her work. Her wine program at Momofuku has been named a James Beard Foundation semifinalist multiple times and in 2017, was awarded “Most Original Wine List in the World” from World Of Fine Wine. Jordan is a Master Sommelier Candidate, a Wine Enthusiast “40 Under 40,” and was recognized as a 2018 James Beard Foundation semi-finalist for "Outstanding Wine, Spirits or Beer Professional.”

Tressie Lieberman is the VP, Digital and Off-Premise at Chipotle, a purpose-driven brand that she loves and admires. She is focused on driving growth of digital ordering, delivery, and catering. She is also responsible for connecting to customers in relevant ways through loyalty, CRM and social media. She is extremely passionate about building winning teams, developing others, connecting to culture and solving big problems. Prior to Chipotle she led marketing, brand experience and menu for Snap Kitchen, a prepared meals concept that makes a healthy lifestyle easy. As CMO in a start-up, she touched every part of the customer journey from engaging team members to designing retail shops and establishing a presence in wholesale. She led a team of chefs and dietitians to create new on-trend dishes, adding over 100 options to the menu in two years, and created an in-house agency team to constantly light up the brand with engaging content while driving sales and online ordering through performance marketing and CRM. Previously Tressie held digital positions at both Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. As Vice President, Digital Innovation and On Demand at Taco Bell, she led an incubator that focused on rapid prototyping, e-commerce, loyalty and new ways to access the brand through delivery. Prior to that role, she built the breakthrough digital marketing and social media strategy that positioned Taco Bell to win in youth culture. She reimagined opportunities to create conversations with activations such as being the first brand on Snapchat, creating a petition for the taco emoji and being an early leader in influencer marketing. She spearheaded the design of Taco Bell’s mobile ordering platform and led the social blackout campaign that moved the app to the top 20 paid apps in the App Store within its first day of launch. The app was included as one of the 20 Best Ads of 2014 by Fast Company and also contributed towards Taco Bell being named as one of Fast Company’s Top Most Innovative Marketers.

Sam serves as Care of Chan’s Director of Business Development, leading talent management and growth of the company. Sam has worked with leading food and beverage brands while on the Client Operations team at Avero, a business analytics platform, and while in house at Chipotle Mexican Grill, strengthening their businesses and their teams. She was named one of Zagat’s 30 under 30 in NYC in 2016.

Meenakshi Nagarajan is the Vice President of Marketing for Sweetgreen. Prior to joining Sweetgreen, Meenakshi was the Director of Digital Marketing for Domino’s Pizza where she was responsible for all traffic driving strategies across paid media, owned and social channels. Her passion and background lie in insight-driven consumer engagement and brand building using technological advancements. Before joining Domino’s, Meenakshi spent over five years developing her skills in consumer marketing as the senior brand manager at Yoplait in General Mills as well as Tropicana in Pepsico, UK. She has also worked as a strategic consultant with ZS Associates, helping corporations to optimize their salesforce and marketing resources using data analytics. Meenakshi holds an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania as well as Masters in Management Information Systems from University of Illinois at Chicago. She grew up in India and has her undergraduate degree in Finance from BITS Pilani, India.  

Emmanuelle Skala is the Sr. Vice President of Customer Success at Toast, Inc. where she leads all the post-sale customer-facing functions at Toast including Support, Services and Restaurant Success.  Prior to Toast, she lead Sales & Customer Success at DigitalOcean and was the Vice President of Sales at Influitive where she scaled the company 10x in two years. She also served as Vice President of Global Channel Sales at Sophos, where she built its global channel organization.  Emmanuelle has extensive software startup experience and a proven sales vision that has been honed over the 18 years. She has led enterprise, inside and channel sales teams and also has a wealth of sales enablement and operations experience. Previously, she was also the first salesperson at two B2B technology companies: Endeca, which was acquired by Oracle for more $1 billion and Vertica, acquired by Hewlett-Packard Company. In both of these roles, she rapidly built the sales teams and processes that drove revenue growth and company expansion. Outside of Toast, Emmanuelle is currently an Independent Director at Emerald Expositions Events and sits on the advisory board of four startups and is a frequent industry speaker and blogger. She earned a number of industry titles, including CRN Channel Chief in 2012 and 2013 and CRN Top 100 Women in the Channel in 2013. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance from New York University' s School of Business.

Heini is Vivino’s Founder and currently serves as board member and chief evangelist. Largely credited with bringing a technology revolution to the wine industry, Heini founded Vivino because he was frustrated by not knowing which wine to buy. It’s been his passion project ever since.  During his tenure, Vivino grew into a community of 30 million users, raised $57 million in funding and rolled out a worldwide wine marketplace. 

Prior to starting Vivino, Heini co-founded several startups, including global internet and mobile security company BullGuard. Heini resides in San Francisco with his wife and three children.

June Rodil is the VP of Operations at McGuire Moorman Hospitality, the Austin-based group behind eight of Austin’s most popular restaurants — June’s All Day, Jeffrey’s, Josephine House, Clark’s, Elizabeth Street Café, Perla’s, Lamberts Barbecue and Pool Burger – and the group’s first restaurant outside of Austin: Clark’s  Aspen. Born in the Philippines and raised in Dallas,Texas, June is a Master Sommelier — only the seventh in Texas and the 23rd woman in the United States — after passing The Court of Master Sommelier’s rigorous test in 2015.    

Bertha González Nieves is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tequila Casa Dragones. For the past 15 years, she has dedicated her career to the tequila industry, earning the certification as the first female Maestra Tequilera by the Academia Mexicana de Catadores de Tequila, a distinction usually held only by men. The Los Angeles Times calls González Nieves “The First Lady of Tequila,” Food & Wine and Fortune magazines named her one of “The Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink for 2015,” and the Financial Times says she is “a tough entrepreneur and co-founder of one of the chicest brands in a business rooted firmly in Mexican machismo.”

In 2009, Casa Dragones debuted Tequila Casa Dragones Joven, a rare, uniquely smooth sipping tequila made by blending silver and extra aged tequila. In 2014, Casa Dragones expanded its collection with Tequila Casa Dragones Blanco, its first style of silver tequila that is perfect for enjoying in cocktails or on the rocks.

Prior to co-founding Casa Dragones, González Nieves spent 10 years as a top executive for Jose Cuervo International, the largest tequila company in the world, holding senior marketing and commercial positions, including Commercial Director for North America, Global Director of New Business and Innovation and Global Brand Director. Prior, González Nieves served as a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, where she designed and implemented marketing strategies for leading global packaged goods companies.

Entrepreneur and angel investor Ben Leventhal is the co-founder and chef executive officer of Resy, the fast-growing restaurant reservations platform using technology to pioneer a new standard of hospitality for the restaurant business. He is also the co-founder of Eater.com, the James Beard Award winning website acquired by Vox Media in 2013. He is on the board of directors of Hot Bread Kitchen, an organization that prepares minority women for careers in the culinary industry; and is a trustee at MOFAD, the Museum of Food & Drink.

Jocelyn Mangan has almost two decades of experience building iconic global mobile apps and market-leading software products. As the former head of product for OpenTable, she oversaw the vision, strategy and development of the company's consumer and restaurant products. Prior to that, Jocelyn held senior roles at TicketMaster, where she successfully led the first multi-lingual, Olympic ticketing website from concept to implementation.  

Mangan was honored as a member of the 2016 column of Henry Crown Fellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. Prior to that, Mangan was named to Fast Company’s 2015 list of “100 Most Creative People in Business” and to Business Insider’s 2014 list of the “32 Most Powerful Women in Mobile Advertising."  Jocelyn received her B.A. in English and Communications from Vanderbilt. Her first hourly job was restaurant hostess.