Bill Zanker is an American businessman who is best known for being the founder of the adult education company

The Learning Annex The Learning Annex is an American education company based in New York City. It was founded in 1980 by Bill Zanker in his New York City studio apartment with a $5,000 investment. It is considered the largest adult education company in North Ame ...

Early life and education

Zanker grew up in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, th ...

. As a senior at

Teaneck High School , motto_translation = To enrich the mind and improve the character , fundingtype = Public , schooltype = high school , grades = 9– 12 , district = Teaneck Public Schools , enrollment = 1,239 (as of 2021–22) , faculty = ...

, Zanker was one of the organizers of a course in Jewish history and culture that started at the high school in the 1972-3 school year after he graduated, an initiative described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as "the first public school in the state to offer a Jewish history course." He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

and majored in film towards a master's degree at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

.Timberlake, Cotten
"'How To' Courses Leading 30-Year-Old to Riches"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', January 24, 1985. Accessed January 15, 2018.

Entrepreneurial pursuits

The Learning Annex

In 1980 Zanker founded The Learning Annex, which he later sold in 1991. He remained a consultant until 1997, when he partnered with California Learning Annex and acquired New York Learning Annex. In December 2001, Zanker became the owner of all Learning Annex Properties after buying out his partners.

The Great American BackRub

In 1993, Zanker founded a chain of stress reduction stores called The Great American BackRub. He sold the company to The Barclay Group in 1997.

Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life

In 2007, Zanker co-authored a ''New York Times'' best selling book with

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

called '' Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life'', also released under the title ''Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life''. In 2015, Zanker created, packaged, sold and promoted President Trump's campaign NYT bestseller ''Crippled America''.

FundAnything

In 2013, Zanker announced the launch of FundAnything.com, a digital platform aimed at broadening the

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

market to include the general public. One of the more notable financial partners is

; who, in 2013, announced that he would personally support new projects on a weekly basis that would also be promoted on Trump's

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account. However, Trump's participation was short-lived, and his last mention of the project was in March 2014. In July 2013, the platform supported comedian and radio personality

Adam Carolla Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio personality, comedian, actor and podcaster. He hosts '' The Adam Carolla Show'', a talk show distributed as a podcast which set the record as the "most downloaded podcast" as judged by ''Guin ...

in his efforts to raise

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1 million in under 30 days for his film ''

Road Hard ''Road Hard'' is a 2015 comedy film directed by Adam Carolla and written by Carolla and Kevin Hench. The film stars Carolla, Diane Farr, Larry Miller, David Alan Grier, and David Koechner. The film was released in selected theaters and on vide ...

''.

Personal life

Zanker is married to Deborah Zanker, and the two have three children, Ediva, Dylan and Vera Zanker. The family currently resides in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zanker, Bill 1954 births Living people American education businesspeople Businesspeople from New Jersey Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni People from Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck High School alumni The New School alumni