Chris Cochran knows the restaurant industry. He started his long and diverse career at age 13, earned degrees in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management, and spent his formative years working with renowned chefs, including David Burke, Charlie Palmer, Judy Rogers, and Alice Waters.

After opening two successful restaurants in San Francisco, he brought his expertise to his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, where he added franchising to his repertoire as a successful multi-unit operator. His expertise extends further, having managed the U.S. launch of international brands and crafted strategy for U.S. national brands distributed in over 10,000 retailers.

Chris has since provided consulting to startups, existing restaurants desiring improvements, and those with franchise goals. His consulting services cover a wide spectrum, including brand and competitive analysis, consumer engagement, positioning, and messaging. He excels in product and brand development, creating brand identity systems, and ensuring brand relevancy through customer satisfaction benchmarking.

In addition to his work in branding, Chris specializes in manufacturing development, navigating licensing vs. co-packing, contract negotiation, and broker networking. His proficiency in retail extends to brand packaging development, retail shelf analysis, and providing packaging structure solutions.

Chris also offers proprietary software solutions tailored to the restaurant, hospitality, and food distribution industries. His approach emphasizes custom solutions that eliminate licensing fees, promote an aggressive revenue-sharing model, and ultimately make the software free through cost recovery.

Chris’s business acumen has grown right along with his passion for food and style. In addition to consulting, he helps international brands bring successful concepts to the U.S., guiding them through the complex business landscape, translating necessary documents, and identifying the best markets for rollout. His firm, MarginWise, includes an international staff fluent in multiple languages, ensuring a global reach.

Beyond consulting, Chris contributes to cookbooks and industry journals as an author and food stylist. He is a member of the American Bar Association.

With more than 20 years of professional experience, Bennett is an award-winning software designer and an expert in motivating people in entertaining and engaging ways. He works with a diverse group of industry clients, including Disney, AARP, and Scandinavian Airlines, and has appeared as a media resource for NBC TV, NRP, Forbes.com, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Bennett is currently the Principle Instructor and Designer at Peace Innovation Institute, based in The Hague, where he designs curriculum to maximize innovation and creativity in organizations. He also lectures at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where he teaches and researches frameworks to translate game design methodology into results-driven, real-world applications for corporations. His past work includes growing the online brand Diner Dash into a $40 million franchise, with over 1 billion downloads, and his work with Electronic Arts, which has generated over $3 billion in revenue to date.

Mark Schepker is an internationally known visual stylist who specializes in sumptuous food photography and strategic creative direction. Mark got his start in packaging design at advertising agencies in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked on major campaigns for Anheuser Busch, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Heinz, Nestle, Bacardi, Republic of Tea, and more. Through his 20+ years of experience he has developed a unique ability to understand and address business needs with a creative vision that fosters beauty and is backed by technical mastery. Mark has executed strategies and photography for: Sugarfire Smokehouse’s appearance on HGTV’s Beat Bobby Flay, Betty Crocker, Muir Glen Tomatoes, and Australia’s Majans Snacks, to name a few. He won the 2015 American Packaging Design Award for Majan’s Bhuja Snacks, and is a two-tie Lucie Foundation International Photography Awards honorable mention recipient. Mark has traveled the world providing creative and strategic vision to globally recognized clients, but he maintains a presence in his hometown of St. Louis. You can see his work everywhere – from outside of the Hi Pointe Drive-In to the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis.

Certified sommelier and beverage industry professional John Fausz possesses more than a decade of experience in bar management, and has first-hand experience in the production of beer, wine, and distilled spirits. He has worked as a general manager and beverage director for the Bengelina Hospitality Group, and has consulted on beverage programs in Saint Louis and West Palm Beach, Florida. He has contributed to articles for Feast Magazine, Alive Magazine, The Riverfront Times, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, and Condé Nast Traveler, and was featured as one of the Best Bartenders in America by Southwest Airlines Magazine. He currently works as a distiller and head of on-premise sales for OOLA Distillery. Recent accolades include: Best in Category – Rectified Vodka from the American Distilling Institute [ADI], 2018; Best Traditional Gin, USA, from the World Gin Awards, London, 2017; and Gold Medal, Cask Strength Bourbon from ADI, 2018.

Andrew is a registered licensed dietitian with a background in culinary arts. He is grateful to have been raised in a city with an exciting food and restaurant scene. He earned degrees in culinary arts and culinary nutrition while working in various roles as a chef, nutritional counselor, and nutrition educator. He has turned his full attention to the nutritional aspect of his work and now works full-time as a registered licensed dietitian. Andrew’s love of food and restaurants means that he provides services beyond the basics of a nutritional label. Andrew analyzes recipes and menus to provide expert advice on improving the nutritional profile of individual dishes or the entire menu.