One of the chief reasons for Beth Kieffer Leonard’s success is that she’s had a lot of fun in her career. “I love this profession,” she says. “Every day is different. I don’t know that a lot of people would think that about an accounting practice.

“I love the service to clients,” she adds. “It made me feel rewarded to help a client. And it made me feel rewarded to lead the firm.”

That was Minneapolis-based accounting and advisory firm Lurie LLP. Leonard joined Lurie in her mid-20s, becoming a partner in 1995 and serving as its managing partner from 2007 until 2022, when it merged with New York-based global business advisory firm EisnerAmper to become the latter’s Twin Cities office. After the merger in 2022, Leonard stayed on as the Minneapolis office’s partner in charge, and then as an advisor. This summer, she finally retires from the firm she’d done so much to build.

Except for a short post-collegiate stint at what was then a Big Eight accounting firm and a year working in Washington, D.C., Leonard spent her career at Lurie. As its managing partner, she navigated the firm through massive challenges and tremendous growth.

“I was able to create my own path,” Leonard says about her career—although she had little choice: “Let’s be honest: There weren’t very many women in the profession that reached even partner back then.” Lurie, which specialized in working with closely held companies in a wide variety of industries, provided numerous professional opportunities for Leonard. “I met with business owners from day one, and I didn’t even know what I was doing,” she recalls, chuckling.

Working for a small, nimble firm allowed Leonard to keep growing. “I always volunteered, if you will, for the next thing that would build my skill set,” she says. Leonard began working with small publicly traded companies. She helped put together an IPO; in the 1990s, she learned how to structure private equity deals.

In time, Leonard also became savvy in strategy and operations, which prepared her to become Lurie’s managing partner. It was a significant breakthrough for a woman in the profession. “But before I had time to take a breath,” the 2008 financial crisis became a crash course in managing under fire.

In response, “we doubled down [on] investing in our people,” Leonard says. “We knew that when the crisis ended, we needed to have the most skilled and most dedicated staff” to pursue growth opportunities. Lurie provided training in soft skills and business development with the goal of building stronger relationships with clients. Leonard made sure that all partners and staff had the chance to talk about what they required in their work. “Early in my tenure as managing partner, I realized that we needed to treat our people the same way that we treat our clients,” she says.

“I always volunteered, if you will, for the next thing that would build my skill set.”

—Beth Kieffer Leonard

These efforts paid off when the crisis receded. “Part of our plan,” Leonard says, “involved asking ourselves, ‘Where are we playing where we could grow?’” That meant going beyond preparation of client tax returns and other financial information. Leonard and her team identified several practice areas, including M&A transactions and wealth advisory services, that would become Lurie’s chief growth drivers in the 2010s.

The pandemic could have brought that growth to a screeching halt. But as Leonard soon discovered, “everyone needed our help more than ever,” managing accounting and financial challenges the pandemic created. Lurie introduced cross-functional teams to better serve clients’ complex needs. “Had we not survived the financial crisis the way we did, we would never have been in such a position for Covid.”

Growth continued unimpeded. For the fiscal year prior to the merger, Lurie grew 20% to $41.5 million. The previous fiscal year, revenue jumped by 15%. Head count grew from 160 employees in 2020 to more than 200 two years later.

At Lurie, “we became integral parts of our clients’ team,” Leonard says. “We gave them advice that makes a difference in their lives, and we help them achieve their goals.” One such client was Amy Langer, who co-founded Minneapolis-based business talent firm Salo in 2002. Lurie handled Salo’s accounting work until Langer sold the company to Los Angeles-based management consultancy Korn Ferry in 2023. Leonard also served on Salo’s board for several years. “[Beth has] seen so many things with so many different [client] companies that she’s able to take a big-picture strategic view and also home in on what the specific issues are,” Langer says. “I think of her as a well-rounded business advisor, not solely a finance person.”

Not surprisingly, Leonard has actively supported women in business. Case in point: her leadership in the global Women Presidents’ Organization. “WPO would not be as successful in Minnesota without the foundation Beth helped create,” Langer says.

In addition, Leonard has given back to her alma mater, the University of Minnesota, in several capacities, including service on the Carlson School of Management’s Board of Overseers and Executive Committee. “She’s direct, but in such an endearing way,” says Sri Zaheer, Carlson’s dean from 2012 to 2023 (she’s currently the school’s chair in global corporate social responsibility). “Many times, in her career, she was the only woman in the room or at the table. She made sure that her voice was heard.”

Zaheer benefited from Leonard’s directness, expertise, and community involvement not only at Carlson but also when Zaheer was chair of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. “Beth reached out very early during Covid and told me that the small community banks that Lurie deals with [were] running out of liquidity,” she recalls. “She also gave very concrete suggestions on what could be done.”

Meanwhile, at Lurie, Leonard and her team came to realize that even with the growth the firm was experiencing, it would need a great deal of money “just to stay current.” A major investment area was technology. “Our profession has an insatiable need for tech,” Leonard says. “You can always do something faster, better, differently.” In addition, “we have sophisticated clients, and those clients needed expertise” in various specialty areas, but because of its capacity limitations, Lurie needed to outsource. As it explored a possible merger, “what was most important to our leadership was giving the younger partners opportunities,” Leonard says.

With its backing from New York-based private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners, EisnerAmper provided the financial resources that Lurie required.

So what’s next? “I’m sure it’s something everyone says, but I do have to work on saying ‘no’,” Leonard says, laughing. It’s safe to say that that will be hard for her to do.