A forty-year resource development professional and strategic planning and philanthropic consultant to the nonprofit sector, is a "hands-on" practitioner who has managed hundreds of capital campaigns and conducted thousands of in-person major gift solicitations and sales calls.

As President of Latz & Company, LLC, a Chicago based capital campaign, major gifts and fundraising consulting firm, Leo and his partners and associated have worked with more than 250 nonprofit organizations during the past 25 years.

Leo is also an Academic Director for Northwestern University Kellogg School’s Center for Nonprofit Management. As an Academic Director, Leo is responsible for the direction and preparation for the Center’s Major Gifts Solicitation Strategies Program, which has been offered once or twice per year since 2014.

As campaign counsel, Leo has managed and helped organizations prepare for capital campaigns with goals ranging from several million dollars to more than $200 million. For example, Leo directed three capital venture fund initiatives which raised $50 million for the Chicago Public Education Fund; the Francis W. Parker's School's historic $90+ million capital campaign, and a $4.5 million effort which renovated and restored a long dormant auditorium for the Catalyst School on the west side of Chicago.

After seven years as a development officer at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois, Leo was a senior partner and managing director of The Suddes Group, a national consulting firm from 1986 to 1997. There, he developed a strategic planning / case statement process which has been implemented by more than 150 schools and organizations across the country. From 1996-97, Leo also co-founded and served as CEO of an internet company which served as an on-line resource for nonprofit organizations. 

Leo brings an academic approach to the development profession through his teaching experience and three degrees: a BA from the University of Notre Dame, an MS in Communications from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Before teaching at Kellogg, Leo was an assistant adjunct professor of management in the Schools of Business and Education at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses in organizational analysis and development, management, nonprofit leadership, managerial communications, and nonprofit resource development.

Leo also has spoken extensively at conferences sponsored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and many other regional and national organizations. He has conducted major gift solicitation training workshops for major gift officers at the University of Illinois, Marquette University and Providence College.

A strong believer in "missions that matter," Leo is deeply committed to his volunteer work with the nonprofit world. Currently, Leo is a Member of the Board for the Children’s Care Foundation, a Life Trustee of Fenwick High School and a member of the Providence College Parents’ Leadership Council. He has also served on the boards of Old St. Patrick's Church in downtown Chicago, St. Gregory and Josephinum High Schools, the Notre Dame Club of Chicago, University of Notre Dame's Center for Social Concerns, Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House; Misericordia Home, Saint Angela and Saint Luke Schools; and the Advisory Councils for Dominican University's Graduate Schools of Business and Education.

Leo is the proud father of five adult children, the oldest of whom is also an advancement and fundraising professional at her alma mater, Providence College. A sports enthusiast, Leo was a four-year student assistant in the University of Notre Dame Sports Information Department, the third commissioner of Notre Dame's renowned Bookstore Basketball Tournament, and a former freshman high school basketball coach at Fenwick High School.