Dan Zenkel is recognized as an innovators and leader in the summer camp world Dan draws on nearly 30 years of camp business experience and his passion for camp to enrich and add value to the wide array of summer and year-round program offerings.
Dan founded, owns and oversees the operation of the Berkshire Soccer Academy for Girls, the coutnry’s largest overnight girls soccer camp. Dan recently purchased a camp in West Virgina which he and his Berkshire team are transforminginto a second Berkshire Soccer Academy location. Dan also co-founded and currently serves as an advisor to North American Camp Trust, a not-for-profit corporation that purchases for-profit camps, transforms them into non-profits and uses surplus funds to send underserved children to summer camp. Dan oversaw all aspects of NACT’s two day camp acquisiitons and the associated tax-free bond financings.
Dan is a founder and the former President and CEO of CampGroup, LLC, the country’s largest owner of for-profit summer camps. From CampGroup’s inception in 1998 through February 2009 Dan guided and oversaw the acquisition, integration and start up of CampGroup’s eleven overnight camps, two day camps and several related businesses.
Since leaving CampGroup, Dan has assisted many individuals in acquiring their first summer camp and is proud of having helped many young camp professionals achieve the dream of camp ownership. Between 2010 and 2019, Dan and his former-partner, Nancy Diamond brokered the acquisition and saleof 15 summer camps and summer camp properties. Dan currently advises NACT on camp acquisitions but no longer provided generalied camp brokerage services.
Dan is a past President and longtime Treasurer and Board Member of SCOPE, a leading camp organization that provides camp scholarships to underserved children. Dan was one of the founders of America’s Camp, which, between 2002 and 2010, provided a free one week camp to children who lost a parent on 9/11. He was on the Board of the New York Section of the American Camp Association and currently serves as the chair of its Veterans of the Camp Experience (VOCE) group. He has presented at numerous industry conferences and authored several articles for camp industry publications.
Prior to starting CampGroup, Dan practiced law and was active in real estate development and management. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia Law School.