Dan Varner is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. Before joining Goodwill, Dan served as the CEO at Excellent Schools Detroit, a partnership of Detroit organizations working to improve Detroit’s public education systems.
He has also worked as a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on both the Michigan and Education & Learning teams. At the Foundation, he co-led the redevelopment of a local giving strategy for Detroit.
Dan is also the co-founder and former CEO of Think Detroit, a nationally-recognized, award-winning youth development organization. Dan merged Think Detroit with Detroit PAL to create the largest provider of youth development sports programs in Detroit. The organization continues to operate as Detroit PAL today, and now serves 13,000 participants each year.
Dan has received many awards and his work has been recognized by two Presidential administrations. He serves on many boards of directors, including the ACLU of Michigan, ConnectEd, Capital Impact Partners, and Detroit PAL. He also served on Michigan’s State Board of Education for four years. He is a current member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Dan is an attorney by training, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School.
Current role