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

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. The town is know for their pancake throwing contest held ...

. As a senior at

Teaneck High School Teaneck High School (known as The Castle on the Hill) is a four-year comprehensive public high school in Teaneck, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the ...

, 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

and majored in film towards a master's degree at

The New School The New School is a Private university, 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 p ...

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

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', 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 is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

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 ''New York Times'' 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, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

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

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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

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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 video ...

''.

References

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