Tony Klemmer

Plans for a second career took an abrupt turn in just one day for Tony Klemmer (MBA 1983) when, after a quarter century of successful startup launches, he left the business world to pursue personal interests on a professional basis. Answering the call of his high school alma mater, Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island, he accepted the post of assistant principal. Turning his sights to improving public education, he met with then-HBS Senior Lecturer Stacey Childress (MBA 2000). She presented him with a challenge. Why, she asked, does the US military develop its most promising leaders through academies like West Point, while there are no parallel institutions to nurture outstanding teachers? Klemmer founded the Center for Better Schools to seek the answer. "Having had the Harvard Business School experience and knowing others who had had similar high-octane, elite academy experiences of advanced learning in other professions, I was shocked to learn that nothing exists in the United States for similarly positioned teachers," Klemmer said.