Element is likely good. They rarely fail internally as it's just basically a wire in a outside housing that get's hot when electricity flows through it (resistive heating element). Since the board was lighting up but the element was not coming on, it will either be the relay on the board, the snap switch (high limit safety switch) or a loose connection.
If you have any confidence in your ability to use a volt/ohm meter, I would trouble shoot some before I pulled any part out. There are a couple of ways to do this, but with the power off is best for safety reason.
If you open the back plate over the heating element terminals, first thing to test is the heating element. First look at the two connections to the heating element. Since the MES is new they should look new, and the wiring should be new looking and not charred. Assuming the wire and connections look good Set the meter to ohms at a low range. Pull one of the connectors off the heating element and leave it off for now. You are looking for about 10 or 11 ohms resistance from a good 1,200 watt MES element. POWER TO SMOKER IS OFF WHEN YOU DO THIS AND IT IS UNPLUGGED. Measure the resistance across the two heating element terminals and look for something in the 10 to 11 ohm range. If you do, the element is good and you can move on to the high limit snap switch next (it's higher up on the back of the MES body, follow the wires, one should go to that switch). Leaving that one connection to the heating element undone, check across the two terminals of the snap switch. You should see 0 (zero) ohms as if it's good, it is acting as a piece of wire. If you see anything other than zero, it's bad (you can use the continuity setting on the meter to check this for "beep" as well).
If the heating element and snap switch are both good, it is likely the relay on the control board or one of the other components on the control board. But before you replace the board, check all the connections to that board as one may have been poorly connected at the factory and vibrated loose in shipping. Again with THE POWER OFF AND SMOKER UNPLUGGED, you can pull and re-seat those connectors to make sure they are solidly connected (if they feel solid when you try to pull them off, you can leave them connected). If any of them are easy to slide off the terminal, crimp the sides a little tighter with some pliers and reconnect them. If you find any loose connections, after tightening them, I would try a power on test to see if that fixed the problem before pulling parts out (don't forget to reconnect that terminal on the heating element that we took off to test with the ohm meter).
Assuming everything is good to that point and still no heat at the element, Kill the power/unplug the smoker and swap the control board and then give it a try. It's basically a process of elimination and tracing the circuits until you find the culprit. If you are tech inclined and had the right tools, there is no reason someone could not trouble shoot the relay and other components on the main board, but since you already have a new board ordered, I would just swap it out if you get to that point.
Just remember you are going to be working with wires and connections that carry household voltages which can be deadly - MAKE 200% SURE THE SMOKER IS UNPLUGGED WHEN YOU DO ANY TROUBLESHOOTING INSIDE OF THE SMOKER.
One thing I would say is since you bought it new from someone who was planning on wiring it into an outdoor kitchen, I wonder if he did not wire it wrong (if he tried to install it). If it was new in a sealed box, this would not apply, but if it was plugged into an outlet that was wired wrong that could be where the problem started. If you find any burned terminals, that is probably what happened.
