Team

As she moved with her family to the U.S. as a child, then as an adult to different countries for her work with different positions she held, such as with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, her curiosity for food cultures across the world brought her to delve into her own heritage when it came time to nurture her own family. She wanted to instill the same spark for life through food in her children and cultivate pride of their Asian roots and its culinary traditions.

This hope spurred her vision of creating healthier foods for her family, starting with Issei Mochi Gummies. Mika attended Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris, published a cookbook “Smart Bites for Baby” (Perseus Press, 2011), and completed her Bachelors Degree from New York University, and her Master’s Degree and qualifying exams for her Ph.D at both the London School of Economics (London) and Le Sorbonne University (Paris) in Philosophy.

A painter, a music producer, and an avid cook, she firmly believes in the cross-section of the arts - how they are all linked and foster a depth of appreciation of all that is beautiful in life. She lives in Washington D.C with her husband and two boys.

Kjetil came to the US from Norway in 1989 to study dance at the Joffrey Ballet School. He worked as a dancer for a few years before going back to university in Paris in 1996 then London where he studied development economics. For the last 25 years he worked with the OECD, UN, and the World Bank where he prepared and managed different development projects and technical studies in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. He recently made another major career change when he decided to join Issei Mochi Gummies as Chief Operations Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Kjetil finds joy in spending time with his family, traveling and eating well.  

In Margaret’s most recent role as National Sales Director at UNREAL Brands, Inc she managed dozens of accounts, including key retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Albertsons, H-E-B, Thrive Market, Meijer, Sprouts and more.  She also directed a large broker network and was the account lead for UNFI and KeHE. Margaret played an integral role in significantly increasing revenue over the course of her 7-year tenure at UNREAL, working with the team to turn the brand from a startup into a household name. Previous to her role at UNREAL, Margaret held a position as a Western Regional Sales Manager with Think Products, LLC; driving distribution as the company was expanding innovation items into new categories. Allen also worked as a broker Account Executive for Presence Marketing, proudly serving a diverse portfolio of clients.  There she also won a brand partner award for most new item placements.   Allen currently lives with her husband and two young children in the Midwest.

Kat has 25 years of experience working in the graphics field with a strong attention to detail and a clear eye for design. She is a multi-faceted professional with an extensive background. She worked in digital e-commerce design for 12 years at Skye Associates, Commerce12 and briefly at eHouse Studio before joining Issei. She also has expertise in high end photo retouching and manipulation, and print pre-press and quality control from 16 years of working for Discovery, most notably freelancing for the TLC network. During this time she was also named a Photoshop World Guru awards finalist in the commercial category. As a production artist for Feld Entertainment and Hirshorn Zuckerman Design Group, she also brings a wealth of knowledge for the print and packaging sector. Kat currently lives in the DC metro area with her husband and two children. A self proclaimed foodie, Kat enjoys eating well, trying new restaurants, hanging with family and friends, traveling, painting, and all things art and design.