Adam Jay Harrison

Adam Jay Harrison
Adam Jay Harrison (left) at MD5 Hack NYC with André Gudger, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, President and Dean of Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and Captain Chris Wood, USMC.
Born	Adam Jay Harrison 1973 Memphis, TN
Residence	Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	University of Memphis (B.A.) University of Florida (M.S.) Naval War College (M.A.) National Intelligence University (M.S.)
Awards	Army Greatest Inventions, Popular Science Best of What's New, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Scientific career
Fields	Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Modern Warfare
Institutions	West Virginia University Center for Smart Defense Mav6, LLC U.S. Department of Defense New York University MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator

Adam Jay Harrison (born 1973) is an American defense industry entrepreneur and technology innovator and an advocate for military acquisition reform.^[1] In 2006 he 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. In 2016 he was named inaugural director of the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, a human capital innovation program within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Early life and education

Harrison was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995^[2] 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 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^[3] missions. 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),^[4] the Persistent Threat Detection System (2005),^[5] and the Constant Hawk aerial surveillance system.

In 2006, Harrison left the military and co-founded Mav6, LLC,^[6] where he served as managing director and chief technology officer from 2006-2014. 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.^[7][8]

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.^[9][10]

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 Security Research Fellow at New York University.^[11]

In 2016, Harrison founded the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, a partnership between the United States Department of Defense and several American universities. He has served as the inaugural director since the program’s inception.^[12][13][14] As part of his work there, he promotes the development of dual-use technology startups that address critical national security issues and has pioneered the use of hackathon and crowdsourcing activities to prototype new military capabilities.^[15][16]

Adam Jay Harrison (center left), LTG Edward C. Cardon (center), and GEN (R) David H. Petraeus (center right) at the MD5 Starts – Real Deal event held at the University of Southern California on November 30, 2017

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.^[17] His work on civil-military collaboration associated with venturing and startup company^[18] 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,^[19][20] United States Naval Institute Proceedings,^[21] Georgetown Security Studies Review,^[22] and Small Wars Journal.^[23]

Harrison is a regular contributor to the War on the Rocks online magazine, writing on topics related to military technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.^[24]

Personal life

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

References

External links

• MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator