CEO Spotlight: Danny Collins, co-founder of 37 North Expeditions

Get to know one of the region’s top business executives and what makes them tick in work and life.

Q: What makes SGF unique to you?
A: Springfield is the perfect size to start and grow a business. We are a large enough community to have a thriving business, but small enough to network as a community and enhance each other.

Q: What inspired you to start your businesses here?
A: Transparently, family brought me back for unfortunate circumstances, but the opportunity came when I fell back in love with the Ozarks’ outdoor scene. I realized I had taken it for granted and that we have such an incredible backyard. I realized that all too many community members were just like me – not really exploring our amazing outdoors. And 37 North was born with the goal to help more of us connect to nature.

Q: What aspects of the community and culture make you proud?
A: Springfield, in my opinion, has grown so much in the past 5-plus years. We are truly looking to change for the better, and the voices I hear the strongest are those that want to be better, unaccepting of complacency. I am hearing strong voices, including diversity, equity and inclusion discussions, as well as strong conversations prioritizing around potential community projects that can have a large impact.

Q: What do you think Springfield’s catch phrase/slogan should be, and why?
A: Springfield: Life Flows Here or Springfield: We Flow Together. I think we need to embrace our connection to water. The James River is the single most underutilized asset in our community; it has always upset me how our community generally seems to neglect, even avoid it. Other communities would kill to have a natural asset like that flowing through our region. That combined with Fellows Lake, Table Rock, Finley River and more, allow a community to connect over our waterways.

Q: Where do you predict you’ll be in five years?
A: Our goal as an organization is to take the next step in outdoor connections. By that, I mean we are looking to use outdoor experiences to focus on bigger community issues such as mental and physical health. We are aiming to work with health care groups, insurance opportunities and corporate groups to bring the power of nature to help with overall well-being and things like employee retention/attraction. We also are excited about our youth programs to give our community a nontraditional activity to help our younger generations have options to connect with the outside world.

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