Andrew Silverman & Emily Bates

Founders, Em's Ice Cream

Denver

Andrew Silverman and his wife Emily Bates both grew up loving ice cream as their preferred treat for any occasion. Andrew grew up in Maine, with a local diary that made ice cream with fresh ingredients close by. Emily had lived in San Francisco, where local organic ice cream shops earned her frequent business. When the couple moved to Denver in the fall of 2013, they found that there was no ice cream company that used only natural organic ingredients as they preferred. They started Em’s Ice cream in 2014, crafting small batch artisan ice cream using the highest quality ingredients. In the first season, Em’s sold ice cream from two mobile ice cream stands, and since that time the company has grown the business to include two ice cream trucks, two ice cream stands, a fixed structure on Denver’s 16th Street Mall that operates June through September, and a brick and mortar ice cream shop at 2829 Fairfax street in Park Hill, Denver.

Andrew Silverman earned a BA in Marketing Communications from Emerson College. While in college, Andrew started a streetwear clothing label called Tank Theory. The company grew and Tank Theory clothing was disturbed nationally through retailers including Urban Outfitters and Zumiez. In 2005, Tank Theory was licensed by Icon Apparel and in 2009 sold to Tank Theory’s art director, Zach Johnsen. Andrew Silverman has also worked for New York Life and Starwood Hotels in project management and web analytics roles before starting Em’s Ice Cream. Andrew is the CEO of the company as his full time job.

Emily Bates earned her PhD in Genetics at Harvard Medical School in 2005. She taught Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Behavioral Anthropology as a teaching fellow at Harvard College. Emily performed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCSF School of Medicine (2006-2008) and began as a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Brigham Young University from 2009 to 2013. Emily is now is a research professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado and Children’s Hospital, which is what brought Andrew and Emily to Denver. Whenever Emily wasn’t working as a professor, she was investing time and energy into Em’s Ice Cream company for the first two years, but now that the business is more established, she helps make big decisions, but Andrew runs the show.