Daniel Burkwald

Dan Burkwald is a Vice President for Horton’s Employee Benefits Solutions. He is responsible for expanding Horton’s consulting capabilities beyond population health and creating opportunities in the talent acquisition and compensation consulting fields. He also helps recruit future sales/customer service team members and maintains strong relationships with our vendors.

Dan has more than 40 years of experience in relationship development, lead generation, mentoring and vendor negotiation. Before joining Horton, he was the president and owner of his own company, Burkwald & Associates, which was acquired by Gallagher in 2015. After the acquisition, Dan played a key role in helping Gallagher produce a 67% annual growth rate, create over 25 new jobs and win “Branch of the Year” in 2021.

Out of all the skills he has learned throughout the years, Dan prides himself on his relationship-building skills. An example of this was when he worked with a school district to save them $6 million and negotiated with multiple union leaders to effect positive change.

“These types of relationships are not sold through a vending machine,” Dan said. “They are complex and require hard work, expertise and emotional intelligence to maintain. But the effort is worth it when you can satisfy your customers and add value for employees with better costs and benefits.”

Dan earned his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. He also received his Chartered Life Underwriter/Chartered Financial Consultant designations from the American College of Financial Services. He currently resides on North Lake in Stone Bank, Wisconsin, with his wife, Kim.

In addition to working at Horton, he is pleased to own businesses with his two children, JP and Lizzy. His youngest son Harrison is a rising senior at Iowa State University (go Cyclones!). When he is not in the office, you can typically find him headed to a new golf destination, skiing, fishing, hunting or wake surfing.