John Kirtley

Founder & Chairman, Step Up For Students, Tampa

Kirtley, a leader in the educational choice movement for more than two decades, founded and leads Step Up for Students, the nonprofit entity that administers most of the vouchers for the state’s K-12 private school scholarships and education savings accounts. The organization administers two-thirds of the education savings accounts in the country, serving about 380,000 students through its three largest programs. Kirtley is managing partner of co-founder of the private equity firm Keswick Partners. Before that, he co-founded two lower middle-market investment firms where he worked for more than 30 years. He started his career at Chemical Venture Partners, a private equity and venture capital arm of Chemical Bank.