Meet Dan! CEO of Lift for the 22 & Founder of LFT MKE
Dan is a veteran of the United States Army and a Purple Heart Recipient. After serving in the military Dan resides in Franklin, WI with his girlfriend Eyvette, her son and his daughters. Dans hobbies include Boxing, MMA, weightlifting, and Professional Wrestling. Dan has competed in professional combat sports and has conducted 154 miles of forces weigted marches to highlight the mental health crisis within not only the veteran community, but our entire community.
in 2020 Dan Newberry was appointed Director of the Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) of The Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC) in June 2020. Previously he held a variety of leadership and management positions. The VBOC is an SBA-funded program serving Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. There are only 22 VBOCs in the U.S. The VBOC’s purpose is to support veterans and military spouses interested in starting businesses or exploring entrepreneurship. The VBOCs deliver the SBA’s small business curricula targeted to veterans, Boots to Business and Boots to Business Reboot (Reboot).
Currently Dan serves as Executive Director and President of the board of Lift for the 22.
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Lift for The 22 is a nonprofit organization founded in Beaverton, OR in 2015 by a Veteran who contemplated suicide after separating from military service, but found hope through exercise with the support of fellow Veterans. Supporters make donations to support gym memberships for Veterans throughout the U.S. with the goal of fostering fellowship and preventing Veteran suicide.
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Meanwhile, Dan had founded 22fitness, a free fitness class hosting community fundraising workouts for Veteran nonprofits across the country, to encourage Veterans to continue exercising post military service. The two entities merged, and Dan became Executive Director of Lift for the 22 in December 2018.
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At Lift for the 22, Dan was responsible for ensuring ongoing local programmatic excellence, rigorous program evaluation, and consistent quality of finance and administration, fundraising, communications, and systems. He engaged and energized Lift For the 22 volunteers, board members, event committees, alumni, partnering organizations, and funders.
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He developed revenue generating and fundraising activities to support existing program operations and deepened and refined all aspects of communications creating a stronger brand, from web presence to external relations. Â
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He built new partnerships and established relationships with community leaders and large businesses such as Kohl’s and Northwestern Mutual. At the same time, he developed a national presence and participated in discussions with government leaders to improve mental healthcare within our communities. Since leaving the VBOC Dan reimagined Lift for the 22 and transformed the organization into a full service veteran servicing organization and hopes to establish more centers like LFT MKE accross the country.
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Implementation Manger, Direct Supply, Milwaukee, WI (2019-2020)                                                                                           Â
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As Implementation Manger, Dan ensured customer satisfaction and business growth through the successful management of DSSI system implementation projects which enable procurement, invoicing and additional functionality for customers utilizing the DSSI eProcurement platform.
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Staff Sergeant/Section Leader, U.S. Army, (2004-2012)
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Dan was a Staff Sergeant/Section Leader for the United States Army for eight years, from January 2004 to August 2012. He provided guidance and leadership under intense situations, implemented strategic planning to ensure operational success, trained and developed personnel to meet senior leadership goals, and managed and accounted for sensitive documentation and high-value equipment.
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Operations Manager of Commercial Recycling Division, Goodwill Industries (November 2017- July 2019)
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Dan was responsible for the daily operations of Goodwill’s, R2 certified/NAID certified Electronics Recycling Program, and secure data destruction operation, refurbishment operation, and recycling operation for GE Healthcare. He had responsibility for the department’s financial performance and management systems focusing on federal and local regulatory compliance with certification standards. He defined tactics and programs for establishing and expanding department production and driving business through support of the Business Development and Sales teams.
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Operations Manager FedEx Ground (Apr 2017- Nov 2017)
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Dan assigned and managed employees to ensure safe and efficient sortation of packages through the facility, minimizing operational cost and maximizing operational quality, including the movement, tracking and administration of trailers. He analyzed operational performance and determined opportunities for improvement of key metrics and executed action plans to achieve results. He led daily employee and planning meetings to ensure workforce communication and understanding of operational updates and daily goals. He was Operations Coordinator at FedEx Ground from 2015-2017.
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Leadership Training
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Dan has completed a number of leadership courses including:
·     Goodwill Leadership Institute
·     FedEx Management and Leadership Course
·     Warrior Leadership Course
·     Unit Prevention Leadership Course
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Dan's specialties include Metric Development, Operations Management, Strategic Planning and Process Improvement (Six Sigma, Kaizen).
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related articles:
https://biztimes.com/dan-newberry-biztimes-medias-notable-veteran-executives/?amp
https://www.goodwillsew.com/mission-stories/dan-newberry?hs_amp=true
https://www.foxsports.com/watch/1528048195551
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