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 from 2017 to 2024, he taught classes in sales, marketing, entrepreneurship and real estate.

While at UF, he was the recipient of the 2019-2020 Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award and the 2022-23 and 2023-24 Student Organization Advisor of the Year Awards in the UF College of Business. He was the Founder and Co-Director of the UF Sales Program, a former member of the UF Faculty Senate and served on UF’s President’s Title IX Committee for Intercollegiate Athletics. He was also a Faculty Adviser for the UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the UF Student Chapter of the American Marketing Association, the Gator Sales Leadership and Mentoring 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 well-known companies such as Progressive Insurance, Anthem, Inc. and Great American Insurance Company. Having spent much of his corporate career acquiring, merging and turning around distressed businesses, he focused on a similar strategy in his later entrepreneurial pursuits. Since acquiring his first business in 1998, Steve and various partners have started or acquired over 20 businesses.

As a part of his entrepreneurial strategy, he received his real estate license and spent several years as a small-medium enterprise merger and acquisition intermediary. He later joined Keller Williams Realty as the Co-Founder of Tufts Realty Associates, an Award-winning 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 10 locations and over 1200 real estate agents throughout North Florida. His real estate group was recently ranked in the Top 100 largest real estate brokerages in the nation by REALTrends. He is a member of the KW International Master Faculty and a Licensed Real Estate Broker 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 as well as various other properties.

Steve is a proud native of Florida. He was born in Jacksonville and grew up on Merritt Island. He has 3 daughters and 6 grandchildren. In his spare time, he enjoys boating, travel, cycling, music, shotgun sports and anything that puts him near the mountains or a beach. He is married to the former Barbara Thompson who devotes her time to serving those in need.