The first in a series of occasional articles on HBS graduates who have embarked on second careers.

Just a few months removed from Wall Street, where he commanded a workforce of six thousand seasoned financial services pros, Richard S. Pechter (MBA ’69) stood before an expectant group of 12-year-old kids last summer and experienced something he hadn’t in years: complete panic.

Once a “master of the universe” as chairman of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s Financial Services Group, Pechter was now just another teacher-in-training, making his debut in a junior high school classroom in Houston, Texas. “I was petrified,” recalls Pechter, who retired in 2000 from his position at DLJ, the company he joined just after graduating from HBS. “The kids were as much in shock as I was. Most of them had grandparents my age.”

After stepping down at DLJ, Pechter signed on with Teach for America, the national training program geared toward recent college graduates. He was eventually placed as a mathematics teacher at Jersey City, New Jersey’s Liberty High, an ethnically diverse high school for students who have struggled in traditional academic environments. The school is not far from Pechter’s home but is part of another world in socioeconomic terms. Having traded in his power lunches for cafeteria duty, Pechter was in for another revelation. “I wasn’t prepared for the leadership of a fantastic principal, the commitment of the faculty, the dedication of the parents, and the generous level of state resources,” he says. “I saw an unbelievable group of people trying to provide kids with a quality education.”

A longtime supporter of education, Pechter had given time and money to scholarship funds in his Wall Street days, but he wanted to make a more personal contribution. “I loved Wall Street and DLJ — it was a wonderful, vibrant place to work,” he remarks. “But as my children grew up and my family situation changed, I thought I should do something beyond that one world. You grow a lot when you explore new fields.”

One of Pechter’s underlying goals when he entered education was to try to figure out why some schools weren’t working. Now, with a humbling year of teaching under his belt, he admits that he still doesn’t have the answers and may never become the “master” he once was on Wall Street.

“The truth is, I’ve learned a great deal about myself since I began teaching, and I’ve taught so little,” he observes. “I’m the big beneficiary right now. There are 2.1 million teachers out there, and they all could probably teach math better than I can. I’m selfish — I really want to do this for me.”

Most of his DLJ colleagues didn’t think Pechter was selfish to trade a spacious Park Avenue office for an old metal desk and a pack of chalk: They thought he was crazy. But Pechter doesn’t agree. For starters, he’s become more patient and a better listener. He finally gets home before dark. And he’s beginning to understand that in the classroom, the students — not the teacher — are the stars.

“I’m learning that it’s not so much what I’m teaching as what they’re learning,” he says. “The less I worry about being the teacher, the better I am and the more the kids learn. My best days are when I don’t say much.”

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