Model behavior

Two high achieving Harvard grads, one a former professional athlete, the other a retired top-level GE executive, have shifted their careers in an unusual way.

Instead of the basketball court or the boardroom, the duo, Neil Phillips and Louis Parker, have entered the complex and sometimes trying world of charter schools. Plus, they've zeroed in on a part of Bradenton known more for gangs, crime and poverty than business or academic success.

Yet in launching an all-boys charter school there, Visible Men Academy, the goal is to change the failing dynamic for young minorities, says Phillips, who played basketball in Australia after college. A native of Jamaica who grew up mostly in the Washington, D.C., area, Phillips also played on the Jamaican National basketball team.