Educator, Former Banker
Kentfield, CA
Chip Vetter has had two divergent but rewarding career paths. After graduating from law school, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work as a lawyer with the emerging technology industry in Silicon Valley and the investment banks that served it. In 1985, he transitioned from law into investment banking and for the next 16 years built a technology practice at two of the preeminent San Francisco-based investment banks (Montgomery Securities and Robertson, Stephens), eventually rising to Head of Corporate Finance and Co-Head of Investment Banking at Robertson, Stephens.
The bursting of the internet bubble in 2000-2001 prompted Chip to take a new direction. With a lifelong passion for mentoring and teaching, he set out to become a high school teacher. In 2003 he joined The Marin School (TMS), an independent high school in Marin County, as a social studies teacher, where he taught for 15 years. Chip left TMS in June 2018 looking to apply his skills in a different and broader context. Chip’s own children and the majority of students he taught at TMS had the enormous privilege of receiving a top-notch education. But there are literally millions of children who do not have the opportunity for such an education and his current focus is on this critical challenge. To understand the issues and the scope of the education gap, Chip has been working with high school students in two communities in Marin County – Marin City and the Canal District of San Rafael. He is looking to his year at DCI to explore how to best use his experience to address that education gap.
Chip has an AB from Dartmouth College and a JD from Harvard Law School. He lives in Marin with his spouse Melanie and they proudly boast of three grown children.
Profile of Impact: Intergenerational and International Perspectives Enrich the Classroom Experience
DCI Partner: Melanie Hirschhorn Vetter