Leo has a passion for assisting privately-held and family owned business owners and their managers in the Chicagoland area to better run their business and plan for the future by understanding their tax and financial position.

Leo joined Dugan & Lopatka in 1997 and has been a practicing public accountant since 1986. He heads the Outsourced Accounting and Accounting & Advisory Services Departments and specializes in tax and business planning for closely held companies and their shareholders.

His approach to business planning is to help management understand their financial numbers and how to apply this knowledge to the current operations and long-term plans for the business. Leo also encourages his clients to share their ideas, opportunities and challenges with him. “I like my clients to know that they have someone they can trust to share information and ideas with and receive meaningful feedback.”

Leo has experience in helping clients comply with their tax filing and financial statement reporting requirements. In addition to the basic compliance work he helps clients through their entire business life cycle by providing financial management support from suggesting accounting department procedure improvements, tracking job profitability, analyzing expansion needs to assisting with the sale or transition of the business to the next generation.

Leo is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (since 1986) and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Illinois CPA Society.  He is also a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) since 2014.

Leo has shown his commitment to the communities in which he lives as a longstanding volunteer with Loaves & Fishes Community Food Pantry, and DuPage Pads. He is a former board member and treasurer of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Naperville Jaycees.

Leo also served as the former finance chairman of the Naperville Celebration 2000 Committee and was a former executive director of the Naperville Last Fling, a three-day end of summer celebration.

Leo Misdom and Hugh Elliott sit down with NCTV Channel 17 to discuss the challenges that businesses are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Dugan & Lopatka is helping clients to navigate those challenges.

Leo has contributed to the following articles:

Mergers & Acquisitions: How to Get “Deal-Ready”
Published by: Dugan & Lopatka, March 2021

In 2021, Construction is about navigating uncertainty
Published by: Dugan & Lopatka, January 2021

Outsourced Accounting; What’s it all about?
Published by: Daily Herald Business Ledger, July 2019

Family vs business: Formal family meetings best
Published by: Daily Herald Business Ledger, July 2018

He is also an active speaker on understanding business financial statements, succession planning and family-owned business planning. Past speaking engagements include:

• Financials for Non-Financials, Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, Valley Industrial Association Annual Conference
• Daily Herald Business Ledger’s Newsmakers’ Forum

• Illinois State University, Bachelor of Science in Accounting (1983).
• Licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of Illinois (1987).

Leo enjoy’s reading about American history, following his children’s lives, and all Chicago sports teams.  He enjoys exercise in any form.  His greatest joy is visiting with his first granddaughter, born in March of 2017.

Leo’s earliest sports memory is following the 1969 Cubs who had four future baseball Hall of Famers on the team, Fergie Jenkins, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo. He can still recite the entire starting lineup and pitching rotation.  Leo was also a college wrestler at Illinois State University.