Steven P. Leone, CPA, CVA
Managing Tax Partner
Always Looking for the Better Answer
After decades in public accounting, Steven Leone has accumulated the kind of experience that could make it easy to rely on what he already knows.
He'd rather keep learning.
His career has taken him from the Big Four to investment banking to Templeton, where his work has expanded well beyond tax into transactions, consulting, and complex business decisions. Along the way, the problems have changed, the technology has changed, and Steven's perspective has continued to evolve.
"I've been around 50 years," he says. "I know a little bit about everything, and I know a lot about a few things."
For Steven, experience isn't about having a ready-made answer to every problem. It's about having the perspective to ask better questions, recognize when something doesn't make sense, and keep learning when the answer isn't immediately clear.
A Career That Kept Expanding
Steven spent 18 years with KPMG, eventually serving as Managing Tax Partner for the firm's South Florida practice. He later moved into investment banking before an opportunity to lead Templeton's tax practice opened another chapter in his career.
The transition broadened the way he saw clients.
"I learned a lot at KPMG, but I've learned a tremendous amount here," he says.
Working with privately held businesses meant considering not only the company, but also the people who owned it. Tax decisions became interconnected with investments, acquisitions, estate and trust considerations, funding, joint ventures, and family wealth.
That broader perspective changed Steven's definition of good advice. Rather than treating each issue in isolation, he wants to understand how the pieces fit together and what the client is ultimately trying to accomplish.
"We tend to look a lot more like a partner than an outsourced professional firm," he says.
The Problems Worth Solving
One engagement captures what Steven still enjoys most about his work.
A business owner had agreed to sell 100% of a company employing hundreds of people. By the time Steven became involved, the transaction had been documented and announced to employees. The deal needed to move forward, but the owner was having second thoughts about the structure.
Steven received roughly 20,000 pages of material and had four weeks to find another path.
He did.
The restructured transaction allowed the owner to sell half of the company while receiving the same amount of money he would have received for selling all of it. Years later, the client still calls Steven and reminds him what that intervention meant.
Steven's description is characteristically understated.
"It was pretty cool," he says. "I love that kind of thing. And that's been... what keeps me going."
That's where decades of experience become meaningful to Steven: not simply knowing the rules, but being able to bring technical knowledge, business perspective, and creativity together when the answer isn't obvious.
Experience Is Something You Keep Building
Steven began his career when consolidated tax returns were prepared on 36-column grid paper, calculations were penciled in by hand, and changes meant reaching for whiteout. He's since watched technology repeatedly transform how accountants work.
What hasn't changed is his belief in the importance of underlying expertise.
Steven remains a strong advocate for technical training, both for himself and for the younger professionals he leads. As routine work becomes increasingly automated, he believes advisors will need deeper specialization and a greater ability to apply their knowledge to the broader challenges clients face.
Technology can make information easier to access. It can't replace the judgment required to know whether the answer in front of you is actually a good one.
Still Looking Forward
Today, artificial intelligence represents the latest change Steven is learning to navigate.
He's enthusiastic about its potential, but equally aware of its limitations. He's seen it dramatically accelerate work, and he's seen what can happen when it's used without enough judgment behind it.
His response isn't to resist the uncertainty.
It's to learn.
"I'm still trying to figure it out," Steven says. "I'm deciding to learn. And morph quickly and let the good and bad happen."
It's a fitting perspective for a career that has never followed a single, narrow path. After decades of new industries, new roles, new problems, and new ways of working, Steven still isn't particularly interested in standing still.
There's always something else to understand, and another problem worth solving.
Areas of Focus
- Corporate Taxation
- Individual Taxation
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Capital Structure & Analysis
- Federal & State Income Tax
- Planning
- Business Valuation
- Transaction Advisory
Education and Professional & Civic Affiliations
- Florida Atlantic University, B.S.
- Florida International University, Graduate Studies
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts
- Big Four Alumni Association
- KPMG LLP Alumni Association
- Florida Atlantic University Alumni Association
- Chairman of the Board, Community Sports Association of South Florida