PBN Leaders & Achievers Awards 2025
DONALD ZAMBARANO
KPMG LLP Providence office managing partner; U.S. sector leader, private equity
DONALD ZAMBARANO HAS SPENT his entire 30-year career at KPMG LLP, so he knows quite a bit about leadership from watching it, practicing it and teaching it.
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Zambarano is the managing partner for the Providence office of KPMG, an international management consulting firm providing audit, tax and advisory services. Zambarano was also recently named the firm’s U.S. sector leader, private equity. A partner in the firm’s deal advisory and strategy practice, Zambarano is responsible for advising corporate and private-equity clients on domestic and international mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
He said the first quality of leadership is authenticity – creating an environment where people can be their authentic selves – followed by adapting and listening to others. Also important aspects for leaders are emotional intelligence and empathy. These qualities, he said, “ensure that our people understand strategy, clear roles and responsibilities, and know the direction we are all going.”
Zambarano notes two prominent people who had the most influence on him. One was his father, who was a supervisor on a factory floor. His dad, he said, “taught me about humility and the need to treat everyone well so that people feel safe and cared for.”
Another influential person in Zambarano’s life was a colleague named Dan Tiemann, who demonstrated the importance of being decisive, of building accountability and of working with the right data.
“Good decisions come from good data,” Zambarano said. “This is how you hold people accountable.” Good data – along with openness and honesty – also is essential when a leader must deliver hard news on topics such as downsizing or making an unpopular choice.
Apart from his work at KPMG, Zambarano is on the board of directors of The Izzy Foundation, the Providence Foundation and the Downtown Providence Parks Network. He has also provided expertise to the Rhode Island Foundation.
Zambarano does this work, he said, as an outgrowth of the idea that people can offer value to others in any form of the three Ts: time, talent and treasure. In leading KPMG, he works with complex financial and human interactions.
Volunteering, he said, “allows me to bring that expertise to help make those organizations better.”
