When A. Barry Rand received the “Welcome, You’re 50!” invitation from AARP, he didn’t hesitate, he says today. “I joined.”

Fourteen years later, AARP had another invitation for Rand. Yes, he had retired after a storied corporate career and now served comfortably as a director on several corporate and nonprofit boards. But when AARP board Chair Bonnie Cramer asked if he would consider becoming CEO of the 40 million-member organization, he had a quick answer: “I said to myself, ‘This is something you must do. I have a lot of gas left in the tank. I have to put my money where my mouth is.’ ”

That means that six months short of his 65th birthday, he had to heed an oft-repeated admonition from his parents. His father, a postal worker, and his mother, a schoolteacher and principal, instilled two principles, he says: “Whatever path in life you choose, you must achieve. No matter what path in life you choose, you must give back.”

Rand’s idea of giving back follows a long record of corporate success. After graduating from American University, he spent 30 years at Xerox, rising from his first job as a sales representative to become executive vice president of Xerox’s worldwide operations, with a workforce of more than 70,000 that generated $18 billion in annual revenue. His career also includes his selection to head Avis Group Holdings in 2000, making him the third African American to lead a Fortune 500 company.

Today, as AARP’s eighth chief executive, Rand embraces a host of new challenges: He leads the nation’s largest nonprofit and advocacy organization at a time when health care and financial problems facing older Americans have forced their way atop the national agenda. He’s also facing the same challenge as many of his generation—extending his work life, reentering the workforce and learning a whole new set of job skills.

Born and raised in a segregated Washington, D.C., he was barred as a child from attending his neighborhood school. As an adult, he gained national acclaim at Xerox for opening employment, promotion and investment opportunities to minorities and women. “I used to be known as an agitator. Now I’m sophisticated. So now I’m a catalyst for social change,” he said recently.

“My passion has always been about social change. I am a son of the ’60s,” he continued, “and the transformational issue at that time was civil rights and inclusion. The question was: Were we going to be—and how were we going to be—an inclusive nation? I started there. I happened to choose to make my contribution in the corporate world.”

A colleague from that corporate world thinks Rand is perfectly suited to his new role. “He’s passionate, has great charisma in delivering the message as it relates to things he believes in,” said Anne Mulcahy, who once worked for Rand and is now CEO and board chair at Xerox. “He’s a skilled diplomat, with an ability to really represent AARP well and be a strong advocate for generations of American people.”

Serious and thoughtful, with an easy smile, Rand is efficient and quite matter-of-fact. He has a vision of the critical moment the nation faces as he takes his new post. He has a vision of AARP’s strengths and its potential impact on current policy challenges. And he has a vision of how his past successes as a catalyst for change at two of the nation’s most prominent corporations can be applied to AARP.

A crucial time

A decade ago, Rand told an interviewer how he hoped his epitaph would read: “He stayed in the fight all the way. He kept pushing for social change. He made his contribution in his way, and he did it throughout his whole visit here.”

Asked what “his fight” is today, Rand replied, “My fight is for all Americans to have the opportunity to participate in the American dream. You cannot do it without affordable health care. You cannot do it without financial security. This affects everyone. But this is not just about our members. It’s about all Americans.”

The peril of the current economic turmoil is hard to miss, with falling home values, rising joblessness and a stock market that has swallowed up nearly $4 trillion in retirement savings.

“This is a critical, critical issue. We are at a point now where there is great hope that we can fix this. We’re either going to reinforce that the American dream can be attained—or, if we fail, we’ll redefine the American dream.” 

Pushing AARP’s strengths

In his new 10th-floor office, with its clear view of the U.S. Capitol, Rand assessed AARP’s range of interests, its strengths and its current strategy.

He stressed the importance and the interrelationship of AARP’s three key components: its advocacy activities; its royalty-producing relationships with AARP-endorsed providers “that finance our good work”; and its growing effort to coordinate volunteering. He also endorsed the Divided We Fail alliance with large and small business and organized labor. “This is all about community building,” he said. “We’re going to have a strong­er voice if we are moving together hand in hand.”

He’ll likely bring a business eye to his oversight at AARP Services, the for-profit subsidiary that manages the endorsements with insurance, travel and financial companies that generate more than $400 million in royalties. Rand also sees them as an opportunity for change. “I’m a firm believer in market-based social change. I also realize that the market needs a companion. It needs a strong social ethic that gives people the power to make all aspects of society better. And with 40 million members, AARP has the power to do that.”

But his clear, current focus is on health care.

“There are short-term priorities, long-term priorities and health care reform now,” he said hitting his desktop for emphasis. “We are a futurist organization with our feet firmly planted on the ground. ... But we have some unfinished business—affordable health care and financial security.”

Already, AARP is playing a critical role in the ongoing debate both at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

“In the end, Congress is going to have to put together what the plan is,” he said. “Our asset is helping to contribute to that plan, always remembering that in a world of scarce resources economically, we can’t get everything we want. But our focus is getting as much for the American people as possible.”

Business lessons

After four decades in corporate America, Rand is changing gears. Mulcahy for one thinks AARP will benefit. “He has a breadth of experience that makes him well-grounded,” she said.

In one memorable moment at a sales conference, Rand partnered with Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner. Conner, playing the role of top sales executive A. Barry Rand, came rolling, stumbling and tumbling down the center aisle of the room, only to be pulled onstage, rescued and reinvigorated by the real Barry Rand—dressed as Superman.

What was the point? “It illustrated Barry’s focus and skill at getting people pumped and motivated and inspired,” Mulcahy said. Rand’s take: “There is nothing wrong with having fun.”

Can the mild-mannered corporate super-achiever find happiness in the world of nonprofit advocacy?

“I cannot think of a better place to devote my passion, my energy and my personal obligation to broaden the door to the American dream so that more Americans can cross that portal,” Rand said. “To me, that’s what AARP is all about.”

But he still may have use for that Superman costume after all.

Jim Toedtman is editor and vice president of AARP Bulletin.