Steve is an accomplished businessman and educator. He has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, an MBA from the University of Virginia and a DBA from the University of Florida. As a Clinical Professor at UF’s Warrington College of Business, and having achieved substantial corporate and entrepreneurial success, he now teaches classes in sales, marketing, entrepreneurship and real estate. His areas of interest includes salesperson performance, salesperson influence, entrepreneurial firm development and entrepreneurial exit.

He was the recipient of the 2019-2020 Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award in the UF College of Business. He is Co-Director of UF’s Professional Selling Program and a member of the UF Faculty Senate. Additionally, he is a Faculty Adviser for the UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the UF Student Chapter of the American Marketing Association, GatorSLAM (a sales-oriented student organization), and several other student groups.
 

Prior to joining the faculty at UF, Steve had a successful corporate career that included senior executive positions at companies like Progressive Insurance, Anthem, Inc. and Great American Insurance Company. After early career assignments as an engineer and financial analyst, Steve became interested in the performance of salespeople. He began his sales management career in 1983 and has been managing a sales force and teaching professional selling in corporate, entrepreneurial and academic settings ever since.

As a part of his sales career progression, he received his real estate license in 2001 and spent several years as an M&A intermediary eventually resulting in the ownership of several entrepreneurial ventures. He joined Keller Williams Realty as the Co-Founder of Tufts Realty Associates, an Award-winning Atlanta-based luxury real estate team. Following his early success in luxury real estate, Steve became the Founder and Operating Partner of the Atlantic Partners Group of Keller Williams Realty offices, currently consisting of 12 locations and over 1200 real estate agents throughout North Florida. His real estate group was recently listed as one of the Top 100 largest real estate brokerages in the nation by REALTrends. He is a member of the KW University International Master Faculty, a Licensed Real Estate Broker in Florida and Georgia and a Licensed Real Estate Instructor in Florida. He is a Member of the National Association of Realtors, the Florida Association of Realtors and 5 Local Boards of Realtors in North Florida. He also owns part of a title company and various other ventures.

Steve is a proud native of Florida. He was born in Jacksonville and grew up on Merritt Island. He has 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren. In his spare time, he enjoys boating, travel, cycling, music and anything that puts him near the mountains or blue water. He and his wife Barbara reside in Gainesville, FL.