 Mendell worked with Bon Jovi on the 1986 album "Slippery When Wet"; on the album his name is listed in an acknowledgement.In about 1986, Mendell moved into working in the financial sector, creating algorithms for trading options and managing risk.In 1997, Mendell co-authored (with 15 other financial experts including Peter Carr, the first author) a scholarly article called "Towards a Theory of Volatility Trading"; the abstract includes the statement, "The primary purpose of this article is to review three methods which have emerged for trading realized volatility."