CEO & Co-founder - PT, DPT

Dan Rootenberg, PT, DPT, CSCS

Dan Rootenberg is the CEO of Spear, the only two-time National Practice of the Year award winner. Dan co-founded Spear in 1999, working out of a small treatment room in midtown Manhattan. He had a singular vision for combining clinical excellence with a five-star customer service experience. Spear has since grown to 55+ locations throughout NYC, Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey and CT, employing over 950+ people currently and is continuing to expand further.

Dan’s focus on organizational leadership has resulted in several honors and recognitions from business, medical and academic institutions. Dan is an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® New York finalist, National Entrepreneur of the month winner and an Olympic Team medical coordinator. Spear has been named to the Inc5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America seven times, received Columbia University’s Award for Leadership in Clinical Education twice and has been named by SmartCEO magazine as a Future50 company five times.

Dan has been honored with the National Practice of the Year award twice, by two industry leading organizations. In 2016, Dan was awarded the American Physical Therapy Association’s Jayne Snyder National Practice of the Year Award, and in 2020, Spear was recognized again receiving the National Practice of the Year award at the WebPT Ascend Conference.

Prior to Spear, Dan played pro baseball on three continents.  In the summer of 2021, Dan traveled to the Olympic Games in Tokyo as a team PT and medical coordinator as well as fulfilling that role in Major League Baseball’s World Baseball Classic tournament held in Seoul, Tokyo and Jupiter, FL.

Dan received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Binghamton University in 1994, along with a Master of Science in Physical Therapy from Touro College in 1997. Dan earned his Clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the EIM Institute of Health Professionals in 2010, winning the Capstone Project Award for business development.

Dan also served on the Board of Directors of Peter Stuyvesant Little League and the Bonnie Youth Club, two organizations devoted to teaching children lifelong values, self-worth, and responsibility through baseball. Dan has made numerous guest spots on Sports Talk radio, and was featured in the award-winning documentary “Holy Land Hardball”. Dan now plays tennis in his free time and lives in NYC with his wife and three children and their puppy.

Dan R
Dan R tennis
Dan R
Dan R tennis

Let’s get you back to better

We pride ourselves on providing the most personalized physical therapy experience—setting a new standard of care that combines best-in-class clinical care with a patient-first mindset.