Dan

From blueprints to balance sheets

I'm Daniel Kaufman. Most people just call me Dan. I've spent more than 25 years on both sides of a real estate deal, starting out building, lending, and investing in Detroit back in 1992. Since then I've worked across the Mountain West, Texas, Florida, Vermont, and the Northeast, directing more than $2 billion in project value and the financing or development of over 10,000 housing units across residential, commercial, mixed-use, and hospitality real estate.

That dual view, hammer on the job site and underwriting the capital that puts it there, is the thread through everything I build: developments only work when the physical product and the financial thesis are designed together, not in sequence.

Day to day, that work happens through Kaufman & Company, Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, and Kaufman Development. This site is where the side projects live instead, a running idea lab for modular housing, 3D-printed construction, prefab, and wherever AI actually helps a builder. It's constantly updated, because the ideas don't stop just because the workday does.

I also lead the Kaufman Family Office, founded by Donald Bruce Kaufman in 1956, turned over to me in 2020, and merged into Kaufman & Company in 2026 under my leadership and the Kaufman family board of directors.

Off the clock, I'm an adventure seeker, food enthusiast, music lover, travel bug, and certified skiing addict. Capturing the moments that make life an unforgettable journey. Come along for the ride.

On snow since age six

I've been skiing since I was 6 years old. For most of my childhood, I drew my own ski maps of the ski areas I dreamed of developing someday, long before real estate development was my day job.

Skiing was an important family activity growing up. My father, my mother, my sister, and even my grandmother all skied, part of the same family history behind the Kaufman Family Office.

In 1992, I enrolled in a ski area management program and began working at Sunday River, in Maine. From there I continued on to UVM, the University of Vermont, where I lived, skied, learned, and worked.

Today, my father and I still ski together, and I'm looking to expand my connection to skiing and the communities that surround it.