Leslie Jacobs

Leslie Rosenthal Jacobs (born 1959, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an award-winning education reform advocate, business executive and philanthropist. Born in New Orleans, she built her family's small, independent insurance agency into one of the largest in the South, before merging the Rosenthal Agency with Hibernia National Bank (now Capital One). For the last 25 years, she has been a passionate voice for education reform, serving initially as an elected member of the Orleans Parish School Board and then as a member of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). She is also the founder of "Educate Now!", a non-profit dedicated to continuing the broad, post-Katrina reforms of New Orleans public schools she helped institute and execute as a member of the BESE.

Jacobs is married to Scott Jacobs. She is the mother to two adult daughters.

Jacobs began work at her family's independent insurance agency in 1981 after graduating from Cornell University. Under her leadership, the company became one of the top 100 insurance brokers in the United States. In 2000, Hibernia National Bank purchased the agency and Jacobs became President of the merged Hibernia Rosenthal Agency. She remained president until 2002. In 2006, Hibernia, the largest deposit holder in Southeast Louisiana, was purchased by Capital One and re-branded under the Capital One banner.

In 1992, Jacobs ran for a position on the Orleans Parish School Board from District 6, a majority African-American district comprising much of southwestern Orleans Parish, including parts of Dixon, Uptown, Mid-City and the Black Pearl. She ran in an open primary and placed first, taking 29% of the vote, or about 3,575 votes. In the run-off election, Jacobs received 13,909 votes and defeated fellow Democrat Henry Julien 59% to 41%. She served on the board until 1996, and in her final year served as board vice-president.

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