Dan McDonough, Jr.

American Capitalist.

Dan has been starting and building businesses for more than 20 years. He currently is chairman of the board of Elauwit, a telecommunications company with operations across the U.S. that focuses on creating excellent customer experiences, At Elauwit, Dan leads strategic efforts, helping to craft and ensure the company's long-term vision. Up until 2012, Dan also served as chief executive of Elauwit. He founded the company as a hyper-local news organization in 2002.

In Elauwit’s beginnings, before pivoting to becoming a customer-experienced internet service provider, Dan led a start-up community newspaper publishing business to become the fastest-growing newspaper publisher in America in 2009, as rated by Inc. magazine. Under Dan's tenure, Elauwit’s media group also was rated among the 10 fastest-growing companies in Southern New Jersey, according to Philadelphia Business Journal.

In 2014, Dan was a founding partner in Woden, a creative agency that focuses on developing and harnessing the brand narratives for fast growth companies. At Woden, Dan helps develop the products and patented processes that fuel the company's success. He also holds equity in Snapwire as a seed investor and in Ryver as an early adviser. 

Dan started his career in media as a teenager, being named executive editor of The Observer in Northern New Jersey at the age of 19. Since then, his news experience included serving as editorial-page editor for daily newspapers in New Jersey; as a New York City-based special correspondent for the Washington-based Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.; and as a news professional with Gannett Co. and Dow Jones & Co.

Dan's articles on business, technology and politics have been published in Intellectual Capital, National Review, The Christian Science Monitor, the NewsFactor Network, In These Times, and a number of other publications. He has served as a board member or as an adviser to numerous companies spanning three continents. An Eagle Scout, Dan served on the National Committee of the Order of the Arrow, the honor society of the Boy Scouts of America, and has served as an officer and board member for many local council boards of the Boy Scouts. He is a trustee and former treasurer of Rising Sun Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in New Jersey, and spends considerable time traveling to and helping to support the community of Anse-A-Foleur on the north coast of Haiti. 

Dan received a BA in Political Science and Communications from William Paterson University, and studied for an MBA in finance and economics at Baruch College — City University of New York. Though Dan splits his time between Charleston, S.C., and the Philadelphia area, he grew up in the New York City metro area and still considers it home.

He also is a jazz bassist.