Dan Buttermann

Lecturer in Business

Dan Buttermann has served as a lecturer in the business department at Hartwick College since 2016. Buttermann holdsa Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. While at SMU, Buttermann was recognized by the school’s namesake, Edwin Cox, as a member of the Dean’s Circle, rewarding not only academic success, but leadership and community service as well. As part of Buttermann’s community service, he led a five-week consulting project for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children through the school’s Business Leadership Center, and later served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Collin County, Texas.

Buttermann began an insurance career in 2006 at GEICO Insurance (Berkshire Hathaway), and worked in three of the company’s regional offices – Tucson, AZ, Dallas, TX, and Woodbury, NY. In 2012, Buttermann joined NYCM Insurance in nearby Edmeston, New York, and in 2024 he joined Markel, a specialty-insurer with national and international operations. Buttermann has always worked in claims management, from leading claims teams and negotiating complex injury resolutions to data and operations management. In 2011, Buttermann earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation, a designation recognized industry-wide for professionalism and insurance expertise.

Buttermann’s business career did not start with insurance, but at Armadilla Wax Works, a family business dedicated to the production of artisan-designed and hand-crafted candles founded in 1971, and still in operation today. Before heading to college, Buttermann had worked in all areas of the company from making the candles, the molds (candles hand-poured), retail sales, wholesale sales and craft shows. The experience in the family business continues to inspire and inform Buttermann’s leadership philosophy, insurance career, and community engagement.

In the community, Buttermann has been recognized as a leader for many years. In 2014, Buttermann completed the six-month program “Leadership Otsego,” and in 2015 was recognized as a “20 under 40” by the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce and the Freeman’s Journal. Buttermann has served on the Oneonta Town Planning Board, and the Oneonta City School District Board of Education, and currently serves on the boards for Opportunities for Otsego (the county’s community action partnership working to build healthy families and alleviate poverty locally), Oneonta Concert Association and the City of Oneonta’s Civil Service Commission. Buttermann is also active with the Oneonta Rotary Club, and served as its President from 2020-2022.

In 2017, Buttermann founded TEDxOneonta. The goal is to connect people, bring big thinkers to Oneonta to share their inspiring ideas, and to highlight the big ideas coming right out of our community. To date, the program has hosted 30+ speakers and has generated over 600,000 views of the TED talks online.

Buttermann graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance. Although, music is not Buttermann’s full-time profession, he continues to perform locally, including with the Catskill Symphony Orchestra and Catskill Choral Society.