Marco Petruzzi, president and CEO of Green Dot Public Schools

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Ed. Note: Author Jane Jelenko blogs about midlife career issues at A Guide to Changing Lanes.

I’ve got a license to steal and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. As an author and blogger on the challenges and benefits of changing lanes at midlife, I have gained access to some of the most interesting and inspiring people who left high flying careers to become social entrepreneurs — men and women doing well by doing good. Happily, they are delighted to share their stories with other boomers, struggling to overcome midlife inertia.

There is no shortage of seemingly intractable problems in our society crying out for the skills, passion, and maturity that we boomers could bring to the table. My personal area of interest is education, so I’m always on the lookout for change artists who are making a difference in the lives of young people. They don’t just wring their hands and bemoan how we put our children’s futures at risk by our failure to give them the education they need to make a success of themselves. Instead, they apply their passion to addressing this national disgrace.

I was fascinated to meet Marco Petruzzi at a dinner party and learn that both of us had been road warriors with successful careers as partners in major, international consulting firms. Marco is now the president and CEO of Green Dot Public Schools, a leading agent for school reform and operator of 19 charter high schools in Los Angeles. Green Dot’s mission is “to transform public education in Los Angeles and beyond so that all children receive the education they need to be successful in college, leadership, and life.”

In 2002, when he first got involved with education reform, the public school system was graduating less than 50 percent of its students, and many of those who did manage to graduate were ill prepared for college and successful lives.

When he was offered the top job at this amazing organization, Marco asked himself a key question: “Do I really want to spend my time making billionaires an extra billion dollars?” The answer was so obvious that it sealed the deal. Since joining Green Dot, Marco has become the poster child for changing lanes to reignite the passion in your life by aligning who you are with what you do.

Read Marco Petruzzi's story.