At its January 16 meeting, following a national search and upon the recommendation of President Shumaker, the UT Board of Trustees appointed Steven D. Leonard executive vice president of UT to serve as chief operating officer. He earned the BS in business administration at UT in 1976 and the MBA from the University of Dallas in 1983. At the time of his appointment, he was deputy commissioner for policy in the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration and special assistant to the governor. Prior to his service in state government, he headed two California companies and was an executive with American Airlines for 20 years.
He, like Shumaker’s executive assistant, Dr. Cathy Cole, was part of the search process that brought Shumaker to UT. Less than a month after Shumaker resigned on August 8, 2003, Leonard resigned his $225,000-per-year position, writing in his letter of resignation: “While the job at UT was incomplete . . . it was time for me to return to the private sector.” On December 17, 2003, the Fiscal Review Committee of the Tennessee State Legislature recommended to Davidson County District Attorney General Victor Johnson that perjury charges be filed against Leonard. Leonard testified before the committee on September 4, 2003. In his testimony, Leonard gave dates of his hiring that did not reconcile with his previous testimony. General Johnson announced in February 2004 that Leonard would not be charged with perjury since the attorney general’s investigation found no intent to deceive or to provide willfully corrupt false statements.