An heir to the Lehman Brothers securities fortune, Buttenwieser rejected a career in investment banking or law, earning a doctorate in education from Columbia University and spending 10 years as a school principal in inner-city Philadelphia. He now runs his own education consulting company, Peter L. Buttenwieser and Associates, that reviews inner-city schools and suggests improvements funded by charitable organizations.

His wife, Terry Marek, made the Mother Jones 400 independently in 1998. She runs a small shop called Intermission Limited that sells performing arts paraphernalia to customers passionate about the theater. A former family therapist, Marek says she founded the store to "reach out to people through the arts."

Although Buttenwieser was a staunch supporter of Al Gore, he blames the former vice president for losing the White House to the Republicans. According to the Los Angeles Times, Buttenwieser told Gore's campaign staff that "you have to give people a compelling, passionate reason to vote for you as well as knocking down the other guy." Despite his contributions, his advice went unheeded. "The campaign was really quite rejecting and disdainful," Buttenwieser says.