Adam Jay Harrison

Adam Jay Harrison (born 1973) is an American defense industry entrepreneur, inventor, and advocate for military acquisition reform.[1] He currently works as a startup founder and investor and is the John R. Boyd National Security Innovation Fellow at New York University, where he researches the efficacy of national innovation policies that capitalize on collaboration between the public and private sectors. In 2006 Harrison founded Mav6, a defense technology company recognized by Inc. magazine in 2011, 2012, and 2013 as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America. From 2016 to 2017 he served as the inaugural director of the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator (now the National Security Innovation Network), a human capital innovation program within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and part of the Defense Innovation Unit. And from 2018 to 2019 he was the Command Innovation Officer of the US Army Futures Command, where he designed and implemented the organization's efforts to collaborate with the civilian high-tech sector in the development of advanced, military-relevant capabilities.[2]

Adam Jay Harrison (center) pictured with inventor and entrepreneur, Stephen Wolfram, and actor Tye Sheridan at the 2019 South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX.
Adam Jay Harrison
Born
Adam Jay Harrison

1973
Memphis, TN
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materUniversity of Memphis (B.A.)
University of Florida (M.S.)
Naval War College (M.A.)
National Intelligence University (M.S.)
New York University (Ph.D.)
AwardsArmy Greatest Inventions, Popular Science Best of What's New, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Scientific career
FieldsEntrepreneurship, Innovation, Modern warfare
InstitutionsWest Virginia University
Center for Smart Defense
Mav6, LLC
U.S. Department of Defense
New York University
MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator
National Security Innovation Network
Army Futures Command

Early life and education

Harrison was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt University and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995[3] and then went on to earn master's degrees from the University of Florida, the Naval War College, and the National Intelligence University. He attended but did not complete the Master of Business Administration program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is a Ph.D. candidate at the New York University.

Career

In 2002 Harrison was selected by the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army to lead the Technical Operations Support Activity (TOSA), a secretive military organization created in 2003 chartered with finding and repurposing commercial technologies for sensitive military missions.[4] Harrison arranged for TOSA personnel to be embedded with operational military units in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world to observe military and counter-terrorism operations, resulting in a number of revolutionary products delivered to the battlefield in the early phases of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. During Harrison’s tenure, the United States Army awarded Army Greatest Invention recognition to three TOSA programs - the Unattended Transient Acoustic MASINT System (UTAMS) (2004),[5] the Persistent Threat Detection System (2005),[6] and the Constant Hawk aerial surveillance system.

In 2006, Harrison left the military and co-founded Mav6, LLC, where he served as managing director and chief technology officer from 2006-2014.[7] By 2011 Mav6 was earning about $120 million in annual revenues and had won three Inc. 500/5000 awards by creating collaborations between academia, industry, and military organizations. In 2011, Popular Science named one of Harrison's projects, the M1400 airship, as a top innovation of the year, and in 2012 Ernst & Young recognized Harrison as the Entrepreneur of the Year in the Gulf Coast Region.[8][9]

In 2010, working as an advisor in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Harrison co-developed a process called "technology domain awareness", which matches new technologies with national security and public safety needs.[10][11]

In December 2011, Harrison co–founded the Center for Battlefield Innovation, part of the High Performance Computing Collaboratory at Mississippi State University, to provide a focal point for applying university-based research to problems in defense and public safety. In March 2014, Harrison was named the first director of the Center for Smart Defense at the West Virginia University. In 2015 he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the National Defense University and the John Boyd National Innovation Research Fellow at New York University.[12]

In 2016, Harrison founded the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, a partnership between the United States Department of Defense and several American universities. He served as the inaugural director from 2016 to 2017.[13][14][15] As part of his work at MD5, he promoted the development of dual-use technology startups that address critical national security issues and pioneered the use of hackathon and crowdsourcing approaches to prototype new military capabilities.[16][17] In 2018, Harrison served as senior innovation advisor to the Army Futures Command Task Force, where he developed the innovation strategy for the Army's Future Force Modernization Enterprise. On July 1, 2018, Harrison was appointed Command Innovation Officer at the Army Futures Command in Austin, TX. In this position, his work has focused on expanding opportunities for startup-derived products to transition to formal Army programs and leveraging soldier insights as a basis for new military capability development.[18][19][20]

Research

Harrison conducts research on the management of technology and innovation as it relates to the national security enterprise and the intersection of national security, entrepreneurship, and technology.[21] His work on civil-military collaboration associated with venturing and startup company[22] development led to the creation of the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator. He has written articles and published research for military-oriented magazines and journals, including National Defense University Defense Horizons,[23][24] United States Naval Institute Proceedings,[25] Georgetown Security Studies Review,[26] Small Wars Journal,[27] and the US Army War College Parameters journal.[28]

Harrison is a regular contributor to the War on the Rocks online magazine, writing on topics related to military technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.[29]

Personal life

Harrison is married and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.

References
  1. "Fast-Paced Technologies Passing by Military's Acquisition Culture". Military.com, 27 March 2015 | by Michael Hoffman
  2. Freedberg, Sydney J. (October 23, 2018). "Army Futures Command Wants YOU (To Innovate)". Breaking Defense. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  3. "Class Notes" Archived 2010-06-02 at the Wayback Machine University of Memphis website, Spring 2006.
  4. "The most secret of secret units". 22 March 2013.
  5. http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/57933/us-army-names-%5B%5D
  6. "Persistent Threat Detection System (74K Aerostat)".
  7. "Mav6, LLC: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  8. Belifiore, Michael (2011-12-06). "Mav6 Blue Devil Airship". Popular Science. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  9. "Adam Jay Harrison, Managing Director, Mav6 LLC: Award recipient". Smart Business. 2013-06-30. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  10. Andrew P. Hunter; Ryan Crotty (13 October 2015). Keeping the Technological Edge. Center for Strategic & International Studies. pp. 33–. ISBN 978-1-4422-5897-6.
  11. "Technology Domain Awareness".
  12. "Can the Pentagon do business with Silicon Valley?". California Sunday Magazine, October 4, 2015. By E.B. Boyd
  13. "MD5 director 'troubled' that group has not met with transition team". Inside Defense, January 04, 2017 | Marjorie Censer
  14. "A Military Startup". WQXR Radio, October 14, 2016
  15. "US defence: Losing its edge in technology?" Financial Times, Sep 6, 2016 Henny Sender
  16. "These hackers could save your life in a disaster". Fox News, by Allison Barrie, October 24, 2016
  17. "The Department of Defense came to Brooklyn to find hacks that could save lives". Technical.ly, April JoynerOct. 25, 2016
  18. Foster, Tom (May 23, 2019). "This Startup Learned the Hard Way What It's Like to Work With the Pentagon". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  19. Hall, Heidi (April 11, 2019). "Army Futures Command, Vanderbilt ink partnership to encourage innovation, education for both". Vanderbilt University News. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  20. Foster, Tom (2019). "This Startup Learned the Hard Way What It's Like to Work With the Pentagon". Inc. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  21. "El imperio de Silicon Valley y su nuevo orden mundial: Los nuevos emperadores ". Vanguardia, Álex Rodríguez
  22. Harrison, Adam Jay. "National Security Technology Accelerator: A Plan for Civil-Military Industry Innovation". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  23. "The Pentagon's Pivot: How Lead Users Are Transforming Defense Product".
  24. "Developing an Innovation- Based Ecosystem at the U.S. Department of de".
  25. "DOD 2.0: High Tech is Eating the Pentagon". February 2016.
  26. http://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/GSSR-Vol.-3-Iss.-1.pdf
  27. "The Defense Innovation Imperative | Small Wars Journal".
  28. Harrison, Adam J. (Winter 2018–19). "Innovation Tradecraft: Sustaining Technological Advantage in the Future Army" (PDF). The U.S. Army War College Quarterly Parameters. 48:4.
  29. "Adam Jay Harrison, Author at War on the Rocks".
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