Mark Pettyjohn

President

Around twenty years ago, in the early ’90s, Mark Pettyjohn, a national marketing director for Citi Group, realized most people lacked basic financial knowledge. Then, he realized he’d lacked it, too — until someone had taught him. In response, he authored his first financial class, “What I Didn’t Learn About Money in High School.”

Mark started by teaching family, friends, and neighbors, but over the years word of mouth brought him more than 25,000 people. Hundreds of businesses and churches took advantage of the course to help their employees and congregants. Many graduates experienced life-changing results by applying the financial principals they learned.

In 2012, in response to the success of his first class, Mark began developing a holistic retirement education program called Retirement Peace University. With over 70 million baby boomers planning to retire in the next few years, he believed, there is an urgent need for retirement education and training. This was confirmed for Mark when he read a recent nation-wide study of Americans over 60 that found 80 percent earned an “F” on a basic retirement facts test.

Mark is approaching the final chapter of a successful and filling career, and his goal is to teach Americans how to make educated and informed decisions about their retirement. His goal is to build a nationwide organization that helps thousands more people discover improved health and wealth in retirement. His goal is also to encourage people who complete the Retirement Peace program to direct a small portion of their resources toward helping others.