Leonard William Hein (February 17, 1916 – 4 September 2000) was an American economist, accountant, and academic.
[1][2] Hein was born in Forest Park, Illinois to Harry Christian and Clara A.
He received his BSc magna cum laude at the Loyola University Chicago in 1952, and his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1954 with the thesis entitled "The Impact of the British Companies Acts Upon the Major Areas of the Practice of Accountancy in the British Isles."
[3] Hein started his academic career as instructor at the DePaul University.
In the next two decades Hein published four books on the development of contemporary accounting thought, electronic data processing, and the use of computers.