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“A Moral Imperative.” What’s This Finance Guy Doing to Help Kids Succeed?

Steve Klinsky, the founder and CEO of New Mountain Capital, has been catching headlines lately with his new philanthropic initiative Freshman Year for Free, but it’s hardly his first foray in education philanthropy.

Klinsky got his start in the business world at Goldman Sachs in the 1980s. About a decade later, he opened an after-school program in New York City in honor of his brother. He went on to found New York’s first charter school, the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem, in 1999. When Jeb Bush left Harvard’s Public Education Policy Group to run for president, Klinsky took over as chair. Now, he’s taking on college debt.