Dan Purjes — Board Member
Growing up in New York City, the son of a taxi driver and a homemaker, Dan Purjes earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science, and completed all course-work for a Ph.D. He established, built and sold a software development firm, and also managed software development for a number of large companies.
Dan has built several businesses from start-up to profitable revenues of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, before selling them to larger corporations. Dan bought ownership of a tiny NYSE member securities firm, and grew that firm to 2,000 people in 250 offices before selling it to one of the largest banks in the country. He went on to grow other successful businesses, from digital printing to software to solar energy.
Today, Dan devotes much of his time to The Purjes Foundation, the non-profit charity founded and funded by him and his wife. He not only provides funds for worthwhile causes, particularly those involving health, but he takes an active role in those causes. Dan has served on the boards of numerous national and local charities such as the American Tinnitus Association, the Abraham Fund, Plant-based Utah, and others.
Ever since his heart attack in 2011, Dan has followed a plant-based diet. He has passionately supported plant-based causes, leading him to acquire and produce the documentary, Eating You Alive; launching, together with the Plantrician Project, the first peer-reviewed medical journal devoted to plant-based nutrition – the International Journal of Disease Reversal & Prevention; funding vegan clinical trials at leading medical institutions; funding the Nutrition/Lifestyle Program at the University of Florida College of Medicine; and establishing the Disease Reversal Association to fund studies and clinical trials employing a whole foods, plant-based diet.
Dan is the father of an adult son and daughter, and the step-father of an adult daughter. He is an avid skier, hiker, snowshoer, and bicyclist. He is an amateur astronomer, likes to ride his original 1970 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and greatly enjoys reading, concerts, operas, museums and scientific presentations. He is intensely interested in all religions, and is a student of Zen … and still learning.
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