Dan Buettner

Dan Buettner is ready to wow audiences with secrets from around the world to live longer, better, healthier and happier lives. Buettner is an internationally recognized explorer who founded Blue Zones --- a project of Quest Network, Inc. that researches the world's best practices in health and longevity and passes that information on to the public through web-based education and public speaking.

A pioneer in both exploration and education, Dan Buettner has set several world records for endurance cycling and created one of the nation's premier adventure learning programs. His Quest Network of online expeditions has opened a new chapter in the book of exploration. Quests enable millions of online explorers to direct a team of experts as they unravel archaeological mysteries. The Washington Post called his Quests "the most successful experiment in interactive education to date."

In 1995, seeking a platform to use the Web and take audiences along on journeys of discovery, Dan founded Earthtreks, Inc. The company's first project, MayaQuest, enabled an online audience to solve the mystery of the ancient Maya civilization collapse. Some 1.3 million people, including 30,000 classrooms, participated in the Quest.

Prior to starting Earthtreks, Dan set three Guinness World Records in long distancing cycling. Americastrek (1986-87) took a team of four Americans on a 15,500-mile ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. On Sovietrek (1990), two Russians, Dan, and his brother, Steve, biked 12,888 miles around the world. Their circumnavigation and the unlikely collaboration of Soviet "communists" and suburban Americans led to appearances by Dan on Late Night with David Letterman, CNN Headline News and NBC's Today Show. Dan's ensuing book, Sovietrek, won a Minnesota Book Award.

Africatrek, a multiracial, trans-Africa expedition, took place a year later. He recruited a four-member team of black and white cyclists to highlight the power of racial cooperation and setting goals. Their 12,172-mile ride across Africa took them across the Sahara, through equatorial Congo, and to the continent's southern tip. In conjunction with the expedition, Dan initiated a program that sent 1,000 bicycles to Africa and an education program that reached over one million students.

Dan co-produced an Africatrek segment on National Geographic and an Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary. Mattel's Africatrek Trail CD-ROM, allowing players to relive the expedition, had sales of more than $2 million. Dan's book, Africatrek, won the Scientific American's "Young Reader Award."

His accomplishments led to television appearances and profiles in dozens of publications, among them USA Today, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic Adventure, TIME, Men's Health, Pravda, and People magazine. As a writer and photographer, Dan's work has appeared in National Geographic World, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Popular Mechanics, and the Chicago Tribune.

Dan's expeditions have garnered the support of many sponsors, including Target Stores, 3M, Apple Computer, Compaq Computers, Lifetouch Portraits, Sun Microsystems, Nike, and Rolex. He was the spokesman for Target Stores' Camp Target, a line of outdoor products. He has been accepted into the Explorer's Club.

In the past 10 years, Dan has delivered more than 500 keynote speeches in diverse venues, ranging from the National Association of Social Studies to Apple Computers, from Stanford University to Target Stores. In 2000, he delivered the keynote address, along with Intel CEO, Craig Barrett, to 7,000 teachers at the National Education Computing Conference. The National Association of Campus Activities Directors inducted Dan into its "Hall of Fame" for his 200 college appearances.

Dan serves on the Board of Directors for The Loft, a literary organization, and The British Virgin Islands Parks' National Trust.

He graduated cum laude from the University of St. Thomas in 1983.