By Karen Ocamb

At first glance, Rick Jacobs seems something of a political anomaly. After a career steeped in global financial investment, including a "defense conversion" venture between his company and the Russian government in Nov. 2003, Jacobs abruptly shifted gears and became the volunteer California chair for the Dean for America campaign. Bitten by the grassroots bug, Jacobs now heads the Campaign for California's Future and its offshoot, the Courage Campaign.

But with every move, a passionate subtext -- the hunger for social change -- informed Jacob's life. Now he hopes to inspire and empower others to be agents of change.

A native of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Jacobs graduated in 1980 from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service with a Dean's Citation. Two years later he served as International Director of the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville where he was responsible for international marketing and helped secure the first, historic participation by the People's Republic of China.

In 1983 Jacobs went to work as assistant to the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Armand Hammer, becoming vice president in 1985, the youngest officer in the company's history. As Hammer's right hand, he was responsible for all U.S. and international government and business contacts "at the highest levels."

In 1991, with Ambassador Howard H. Baker, Jacobs launched the Washington D.C. and Moscow-based company, Neewstar Inc., a merchant banking and investment advisory firm. He also worked at Marvel Enterprises, and he managed investments for a Forbes 400 family.

Jacobs' latest business venture is RDJ Strategic Advisors, "which provides strategic analyses and global solutions to high net worth individuals and companies." Recently he served as deputy chair of the California Democratic Party and he's teamed with documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald (OutFoxed) to form Brave New Films, which will soon distribute a film about Wal-Mart.

Despite his "insider" status, Jacobs grasps the benefits of working outside the system to effect change.

"While in college, I had planned to go into the Foreign Service," Jacobs told IN. But, "I could see that even from the relatively small perch of a public-private venture which was the World's Fair that I could have more impact from the outside than from within. I think that really informed me for the remainder of my career, up to and including now," Jacobs told IN.

"Armand Hammer was all about change. He served as perhaps the leading citizen-diplomat during the last years of the Cold War and especially in helping to negotiate an end to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which we visited twice during the 1980s war. Again, I could see first hand how much one determined soul outside the system, not beholden to anyone, could do," he said.

"I had always wanted to run for political office while growing up, a dream many of us hold. The reality for me was that being gay and living in East Tennessee in the 1980s did not lend itself to politics. I subsumed my real interests for years, working hard for the Fair and Dr. Hammer and then building a business in Russia. All the while, my passion for effecting social change remained and even grew stronger."

Now 47, Jacobs came out in Washington D.C. 1991 when he was 33. During the 1980s, he said, he tried not to be gay, including getting "very involved" in Orthodox Judaism and trying to get married.

"I'm the only person I know who had to leave L.A. to come out," Jacobs said. "I knew I was gay for a long time but I never wanted to face myself. I was running from what I really was. Finally, I just had to do it." Returning to L.A., he jumped "head long" into social change issues through the Liberty Hill Foundation.

Jacobs met Dean at a fund-raiser in the summer of 2002. "He stayed at my house for a night, "Jacobs said. "I was prepared not to like him. At that time, having just signed the Civil Unions bill, I thought he was the sort of gay candidate for president. The last thing we needed to take on George Bush was a narrow 'special interest' candidate. As we spoke, I realized that this is an extraordinary man. He understands and is vitally interested in global affairs and in details as well as sweep of public policy. I introduced him to my friend Bill Perry, who had been secretary of defense in the first Clinton Administration. Dr. Perry told me after the meeting that he had not expected much, since Governor Dean had lived in a small northeastern state for so long. Instead, he, too, was demonstrably impressed by Dean's depth of understanding and curiosity.

Dean asked Jacobs to join the team. "In November, 2003, I quit my job and became the state chair for the Dean for America campaign, a step I will always cherish having taken. It was an enormous financial risk. I went from a very highly compensated post to volunteer, over night. That one step has brought the passions I had subsumed to the fore and there they flow. The Dean campaign's grassroots activism attracted me because popular politics, rather than back room politics, is what makes democracy flow. I thrive on the energy and diversity of grassroots activism.

Jacobs was transformed working with SEIU Local 1877. "Together with 50 or so monolingual janitors, about 100 folks largely from the Westside went to Arizona and New Mexico to campaign for Dean in advance of the primaries there. Seeing the mix and the energy made me know what I am in this for. It's really for all of us, to build community so that we all grow stronger. It sounds corny, but it still gives me that tingle up the spine."

Now with the Courage Campaign, Jacobs hopes to others will experience that tingle. "We are not beholden to anyone at all," Jacobs said. "We can be aspirational, affirmative and strong ... And we can become that echo chamber and 'cover' that allows our politicians to lead," he said. "People have dreams in their hearts. Dreams that [they] are tired of keeping quiet. Dreams that are tired of caution and compromise. Dreams that want out."

For more info on the Nov. 3 L.A. premiere of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, call

(213) 977-9400, x132. For more information on the Couarge Campaign go to

www.couragecampaign.org.