BACKGROUND
Yes, he’s almost 60 but feels 16. Yes, he leads a small group of college sophomore guys who call themselves the toasted pop tarts. Yes, he “feels like a Gen Z-er on the inside,” and yes, he believes ice cream is a food group of its own.
Welcome to Scott Reitano’s world.
By day he’s the owner of Indianapolis-based Reitano Design Group, working with his team of 10 on food service design projects large and small, local and national. Although the firm’s signature is k-12 schools, you’ll also find their creative design in the IU Health Medical Center and the new Elanco world headquarters among other projects.
He is a man who believes with Peter Drucker that culture eats strategy for breakfast, and as such, there is nothing more important to him at work than his team. He nurtures company culture and relationships, especially making a big deal out of birthdays for team members and their spouses and kids – and, naturally, his greetings always come with ice cream.
Outside of work, he’s been involved almost continuously with YoungLife (YL) since the late 1980’s. He led his brother to Christ at a YL camp in Colorado and his son went to YL Wilderness Camp as well. Reitano contemplated moving into YL organizational leadership, but believed it wouldn’t be as sweet to him as direct interaction with the kids. Years later, he helped form a YL WyldLife club for middle schoolers at The Oaks Academy when his daughter, Mary Rose, was a student there. In the summer of 2021, he and his wife, Lori, led a group of 23 kids on a trek to YL Camp at Timberwolf Lake Lodge in Michigan even when the pandemic shut down so many opportunities for kids and adults.
Mary Rose, now a college freshman at his alma mater (Miami University, Oxford, Ohio), has inspired a lot of his activity in the community over the years including YL (he still serves on the Washington Township committee), his volunteer work at The Oaks Academy while she was a student there, and coaching recreational soccer at First Baptist Athletics for six years.
“I’m still learning about this part of myself,” he says. “I have an energy about connecting with kids. I can be my goofy self and love on them. We are grateful to have these young adults still in and out of our home.”
Reitano was born in Boston into a very Italian family, but grew up in Colombus, Ohio where his father also worked in the food service industry. After attaining his marketing degree at Maimi, Reitano went to work for Hobart in Indianapolis in 1986 and has lived here since. After a year with Hobart, he became the first out-of-state employee hired by his father’s Ohio firm, and they worked together for the next 17 years until he purchased Foodservice Consulting Group in 2004. That firm eventually became Reitano
Design Group in 2013.
“My father was a huge influence on me,” he says. “In 1995, he came to Christ in the Hoosier Dome at a Promise Keepers event, and until his death three years ago, he amazed me with the way he lived that out.”
Reitano and his wife live in Washington Township and attend College Park Church. He was the chairman of the board of Purposeful Design (started by his dear friend David Palmer) from 2013 to 2021, and willingly goes on record saying he will be involved in anything Palmer is.
“I’m so blessed to have the authenticity of friendships I do,” he says. “It’s how God allows me to connect and love.”
REITANO'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
SCOTT REITANO TRIVIA
Favorite hobbies besides work? Sharing life with family, whatever we do.
Go to snack and beverage? Ice cream, solid or liquid
Favorite restaurant, locally? Just Judy’s on 62nd Street
Favorite places for a vacation? My favorite vacation is wherever I have my people.
Secret Dream? That all of my people will be with me in heaven.
Connect with Scott Reitano at scott.reitano@gmail.com.
Yes, he’s almost 60 but feels 16. Yes, he leads a small group of college sophomore guys who call themselves the toasted pop tarts. Yes, he “feels like a Gen Z-er on the inside,” and yes, he believes ice cream is a food group of its own.
Welcome to Scott Reitano’s world.
By day he’s the owner of Indianapolis-based Reitano Design Group, working with his team of 10 on food service design projects large and small, local and national. Although the firm’s signature is k-12 schools, you’ll also find their creative design in the IU Health Medical Center and the new Elanco world headquarters among other projects.
He is a man who believes with Peter Drucker that culture eats strategy for breakfast, and as such, there is nothing more important to him at work than his team. He nurtures company culture and relationships, especially making a big deal out of birthdays for team members and their spouses and kids – and, naturally, his greetings always come with ice cream.
Outside of work, he’s been involved almost continuously with YoungLife (YL) since the late 1980’s. He led his brother to Christ at a YL camp in Colorado and his son went to YL Wilderness Camp as well. Reitano contemplated moving into YL organizational leadership, but believed it wouldn’t be as sweet to him as direct interaction with the kids. Years later, he helped form a YL WyldLife club for middle schoolers at The Oaks Academy when his daughter, Mary Rose, was a student there. In the summer of 2021, he and his wife, Lori, led a group of 23 kids on a trek to YL Camp at Timberwolf Lake Lodge in Michigan even when the pandemic shut down so many opportunities for kids and adults.
Mary Rose, now a college freshman at his alma mater (Miami University, Oxford, Ohio), has inspired a lot of his activity in the community over the years including YL (he still serves on the Washington Township committee), his volunteer work at The Oaks Academy while she was a student there, and coaching recreational soccer at First Baptist Athletics for six years.
“I’m still learning about this part of myself,” he says. “I have an energy about connecting with kids. I can be my goofy self and love on them. We are grateful to have these young adults still in and out of our home.”
Reitano was born in Boston into a very Italian family, but grew up in Colombus, Ohio where his father also worked in the food service industry. After attaining his marketing degree at Maimi, Reitano went to work for Hobart in Indianapolis in 1986 and has lived here since. After a year with Hobart, he became the first out-of-state employee hired by his father’s Ohio firm, and they worked together for the next 17 years until he purchased Foodservice Consulting Group in 2004. That firm eventually became Reitano
Design Group in 2013.
“My father was a huge influence on me,” he says. “In 1995, he came to Christ in the Hoosier Dome at a Promise Keepers event, and until his death three years ago, he amazed me with the way he lived that out.”
Reitano and his wife live in Washington Township and attend College Park Church. He was the chairman of the board of Purposeful Design (started by his dear friend David Palmer) from 2013 to 2021, and willingly goes on record saying he will be involved in anything Palmer is.
“I’m so blessed to have the authenticity of friendships I do,” he says. “It’s how God allows me to connect and love.”
REITANO'S IDEAS FOR A BETTER INDY
- CHALLENGE YOURSELF WITH INTENTIONAL CONNECTIONS. Reitano is wired by God to connect and challenges himself to get concrete with how to do that. He says moving in circles with people like Don Palmer, David Palmer, and Greg Enas constantly ups the bar for him to be intentional about making time for connection count. “They’re not just haphazardly hoping to make a difference,” he says, “and I’m paying more attention than they know!”
- OPEN ACCESS FOR OTHERS. One thing his dad did for him that he seeks to do for others is opening access to his network. He is determined to not take for granted the ways his dad did that for him. “Because of him, I’m quietly asking, ‘how can I support you, assist you, impact you?’ And that’s the challenge of any community,” he says.
- DON’T WAIT FOR SOME ORGANIZATION TO TELL YOU TO GO. The people who are his biggest inspiration aren’t waiting for some group to form around a need and craft a perfect mission statement – they’re waiting on God to tell them to go. “They’re having such impact without even thinking about it, and that’s humbling and inspirational,” he says.
SCOTT REITANO TRIVIA
Favorite hobbies besides work? Sharing life with family, whatever we do.
Go to snack and beverage? Ice cream, solid or liquid
Favorite restaurant, locally? Just Judy’s on 62nd Street
Favorite places for a vacation? My favorite vacation is wherever I have my people.
Secret Dream? That all of my people will be with me in heaven.
Connect with Scott Reitano at scott.reitano@gmail.com.
