Dan Liljenquist
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Daniel R. Liljenquist (born July 10, 1974) is an American businessman and politician who served one term in the
Utah State Senate The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of senate districts. Each senate district is ...
.


Early life and education

Born in
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to Dr. John E. Liljenquist and Colleen Redford Liljenquist, he spent most of his childhood in
Idaho Falls, Idaho Idaho Falls (Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: Dembimbosaage) is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, Bonneville County, Idaho, United States. It is the state's largest city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 Un ...
. After a football injury sidelined him as a high school junior, he became interested in politics. He served as the student body president of his senior class at Skyline High School. He attended
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
, graduating ''magna cum laude'' with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1998. After graduation, he attended the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...
, graduating with a
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
in 2001. Liljenquist spent the summer between his first and second years of law school interning for the
Institute for Justice The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a libertarian non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated ten cases before the United States Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain, interstate commerce, public financing for e ...
Clinic on Entrepreneurship. He provided pro bono legal assistance as well as business consulting aimed at helping fledgling businesses get off the ground.


Career


Business

Upon graduating from law school, Liljenquist launched his career as a consultant with
Bain & Company Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was fou ...
, serving in their
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office. He worked at Bain from 2001 to 2003. In 2003, he joined
Affiliated Computer Services Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) was a company that provided information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS was based in Dallas, Dalla ...
, a Fortune 500 Business Process Outsourcing leader. He served as Director of Operational Strategy for Commercial Solutions Group, working out of their
Sandy, Utah Sandy is a city in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The population of Sandy was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah. The population is currently estimated ...
office. In 2005, he joined FOCUS Services, LLC and served as its president and chief operating officer until January 2011. He sold his interests in the company in January 2011. In 2012, he founded Liljenquist Strategies, a strategy consulting company focused on public sector pension and benefits reforms. Also in 2012, he joined
Intermountain Healthcare Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit healthcare system and is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West of the United States. Intermountain Healthcare provides ambulatory and acute health services, along with other medi ...
as Director of Special Projects in the Shared Accountability Organization. He began writing a weekly column for the ''
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'' in the fall of 2012, and wrote over 200 columns through May 2017. Dan is now Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Intermountain Healthcare, where he oversees Intermountain’s Enterprise Initiative and Market Intelligence & Planning Offices. He is also the lead architect and Board Chair of Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic drug company established to reduce chronic generic drug shortages and price gouging. He serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the
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, which publishes
Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...
.


Utah State Senate


2008 election

In 2008, incumbent state Senator
Dan Eastman Dan R. Eastman (March 12, 1946 – June 8, 2010) was an American politician and car salesman who served as a member of the Utah State Senate. Early life and education Eastman was born on March 12, 1946 in Salt Lake City. Afton Joyce Bowen ...
did not file for re-election. Eight Davis county Republicans filed to take his place. At the 2008 Davis county Republican convention, Liljenquist received 55% of the delegate vote. In the ensuing primary with Ron Mortensen, Liljenquist won 64% of the vote to Mortensen's 36%. In the November general election, he received 70.40% of the vote to
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Richard Watson's 26.2% and Constitution Party candidate Jorgina Hancock's 3.3%.


Tenure

In his freshman year in the Utah Senate, Liljenquist sponsored SB 126: State Personnel Management Act Amendments that put performance over length of service when considering rehiring public employees, effectively eliminating tenure. In 2010, Liljenquist addressed pension reform with SB 63, moving Utah to a defined contribution state maxing out at 10%. Spurred by a 30% loss to the state retirement fund in 2008, Liljenquist focused on changing the system for new hires entering after July 1, 2011, moving away from a defined benefit program to a defined contribution plan. He also successfully sponsored a companion bill, SB 43 that did away with the so-called practice of "double-dipping." His bill also eliminated pensions for state legislators. In 2011, Liljenquist was the sponsor of Utah's
Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...
reform. SB 180, which passed unanimously, proposed block granting Medicaid funds to Utah, switching from a fee-for-service model to a managed care system, and making Utah the first state in the nation to cap Medicaid growth. The reforms were estimated to save $2.5 billion on total funds in the first seven years of its implementation by making sure many Utahns didn't get the access to healthcare they needed. . During his tenure in the State Senate, Liljenquist served on the Appropriations, Standing, and Interim committee. ''
Governing Magazine ''Governing'' is a website, edited and published in Washington, D.C., that covers state and local government in the United States. Originally a national monthly magazine, it was published in print 1987 and 2019. It covers policy, politics, and the ...
'' named him a 2011 "Public Official of the Year" for his work on both pension and Medicaid reform.
FreedomWorks FreedomWorks is a conservative and libertarian advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. FreedomWorks trains volunteers, assists in campaigns, and encourages them to mobilize, interacting with both fellow citizens and their political representat ...
named him their "Legislative Entrepreneur of the Year" in November 2011.


2012 U.S. Senate election

On December 15, 2011, Liljenquist resigned from the Utah State Senate. On January 4, 2012, during an interview with Doug Wright on KSL, Liljenquist announced his intention to challenge longtime incumbent U.S. Senator
Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
. With ten Republican candidates in the race through the state convention, Liljenquist won 40.8% of the delegate vote, forcing Hatch into his first primary since 1976. Hatch spent $10.5 million in the primary. In the June 2012 primary election, Liljenquist lost to Hatch, receiving 33.5% of the vote to Hatch's 66.5%.


Personal life

Liljenquist is married and has six children. In June 2008, Liljenquist was injured in the 2008 Aéreo Ruta Maya crash. Liljenquist had been traveling in
Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
with CHOICE Humanitarian when the plane crashed in a field due to an
engine failure A turbine engine failure occurs when a turbine engine unexpectedly stops producing power due to a malfunction other than fuel exhaustion. It often applies for aircraft, but other turbine engines can fail, like ground-based turbines used in power ...
. Eleven of the fourteen people aboard the aircraft died. Liljenquist broke his right leg and left ankle in multiple places. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liljenquist, Dan 1974 births Living people Latter Day Saints from Tennessee Latter Day Saints from Idaho Latter Day Saints from Utah Latter Day Saints from Illinois American management consultants Brigham Young University alumni Businesspeople from Utah People from Bountiful, Utah People from Idaho Falls, Idaho Politicians from Nashville, Tennessee Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents University of Chicago Law School alumni Republican Party Utah state senators 21st-century American politicians People associated with Kirkland & Ellis