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Jake Harriman: Finding Common Ground to Reach Higher Ground
Jake Harriman
Founder, Nuru International and Founder, More Perfect Union
- Former Marine who completed four tours of duty in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia
- Honored as a White House “Champion of Change,” and a Dalai Lama “Unsung Hero of Compassion”
- Incredible stories filled with lessons for empowering leaders and developing new solutions to old problems
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Jake Harriman is the founder of Nuru International, a US-based social venture with a mission to eradicate extreme poverty and violence in some of the most fragile regions of the world. Following tours of duty as a marine platoon commander in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, Harriman enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. It was there that he was inspired to found Nuru, based on his experiences coming face-to-face with the effects of extreme poverty in war-torn regions overseas. Nuru was built on the belief that many 21st century ills can only be eradicated through a strategy that includes ending extreme poverty. Since 2009, Nuru has impacted more than 250,000 people — empowering them with meaningful choices for creating a better future for themselves.
Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Harriman opens up about his experiences working to make a difference in the world — beginning as a marine and later founding and leading change-making organizations. When speaking to groups, he shares strategies to equip leaders to take charge of their own destinies and communities, and unlock innovative approaches to age-old problems. Harriman inspires each person to think about how they can leverage their unique experiences and talents to serve others, and spurs them to action in order to better their communities, and the world around them.
In addition to making a global impact through Nuru, Harriman has now turned his attention to helping protect the American Democratic experiment. In 2020, he founded More Perfect Union (MPU) to disrupt and reform the current political system, heal our divided nation, and give the government back to the American people. Key early components of MPU’s 10-year plan include creating a reform-minded county-first fulcrum in the U.S. Senate, building a nationwide veteran-led movement for unity and reform, and passing new legislation to reform the electoral system.
A decorated combat veteran, Harriman has been honored by the White House as a “Champion of Change,” selected as a Dalai Lama “Unsung Hero of Compassion,” and featured in profile pieces by Forbes, The Huffington Post, ABC News, and more. He is also a graduate of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Class of 2015, and has served as a senior advisor at the McChrystal Group since 2021.
Born in rural West Virginia, Harriman attended the U.S. Naval Academy before serving seven and a half years as an Infantry and Force Recon Platoon Commander in the Marine Corps. He led four operational deployments, including counter-terror operations in the Horn of Africa and two tours of combat in Iraq. Harriman’s experiences in combat convinced him that the “War on Terror” would not be won on the battlefield alone — and that the coordinates of someone’s birthplace should not dictate the opportunities they are presented with throughout the course of their life. Jake left military life to enroll at Stanford where, with the assistance of roughly 30 peers and professors, investments from Silicon Valley, and donations from around the world, he moved to Kenya and founded Nuru International.
From 2017 to 2019, Harriman helped draft, introduce, and work to pass groundbreaking new legislation called the Global Fragility Act of 2019, which will equip America with new authorities and resources to prevent conflict and stabilize some of the most fragile regions of the world that pose a growing threat to US and global security.
Speaker Video
Jake Harriman: The Origin Story of +More Perfect Union
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Empowering Individuals to Solve Problems
Jake Harriman: Iraq War Vet Hopes to Bridge Political Divide Through Community Service
Jake Harriman: The New Front Lines | TEDxBYU
More Perfect Union
Jake Harriman: The Origin Story
Jake Harriman on Making a Difference
You Never Stop Serving
TEDx Talk
Building Great Leaders: How To Unlock Hidden Potential. While developing and deploying Nuru International, Jake Harriman was faced with the monumental task of not only recruiting fellow Marines to join his ranks but also identify and training local leaders in war-torn part of Africa to take up his cause and continue Nuru’s work after the NGO’s physical exit from the region.
Having crafted a model for Nuru’s success that is “fundamentally based on building leaders to innovate past the challenges they will experience”—coupled with his impressive experience as a Presidential Leadership Scholar—Harriman is able to discuss in moving detail how to inspire and equip the leaders of tomorrow. He shares stories that are equal parts heart-breaking, gripping, and hilarious to illustrate the importance of strong leadership in war and business. In particular, Harriman focuses on how to identify and nurture the unique qualities that make a leader, why it’s better to invest in leaders than infrastructure, plus how to unlock potential within your current ranks.
Servant Leadership: Put Yourself Last To Finish First. How does a leader become someone their team wants to follow? According to Jake Harriman, by practicing the principles of servant leadership. With this practical, hands-on talk, he explains how to become a servant leader as well as the bottom-line benefits to servant leadership—including learning implementable solutions to existing problems from those you lead, creating an engaged culture with less lost time, and developing a resilient staff who is willing and able to withstand seismic shifts.
Finding Common Ground to Reach Higher. Following multiple tours of duty and humanitarian work in conflict regions across the globe, retired marine platoon commander Jake Harriman returned home to find that the United States had become divided. Thus began his mission to empower Americans to find common ground in order to reach higher ground and work together to create positive, meaningful change in our communities and beyond. Drawing from his experiences uniting groups in war-torn regions, Harriman emphasizes the importance of understanding, empathy, and belonging, while also discussing the importance of embracing diverse perspectives as the foundation for genuine connection and collaboration. He shares battle-tested approaches for conquering division and emphasizes the collective responsibility of creating a more resilient and united front within our country and our organizations.
Fail Fast, Learn Fast: Innovation Under Pressure. When Harriman launched Nuru International, it was the first organization of its kind: a fusion of the best aspects of NGOs paired with a staff of combat veterans with experience operating in war zones. With this talk, he tells stories of the early days of Nuru and the challenges he faced, including being robbed, a malaria diagnosis, a black widow spider bite, an earthquake, and being struck by lightning—all in one week. With a motto of “fail fast, learn fast,” Nuru became an agile organization that is now a major success story soon heading into new global territories with the backing of the White House. He shares the lessons learned along the way about innovating past unforeseen challenges and continuously adapting to new environments.
Why America Must Lead. Having witnessed conflict, violence, and desperation in the third world firsthand, Harriman has come to passionately believe that America must lead the global effort to eradicate extreme poverty. With this talk, he explains his experiences abroad and the life-changing moments that brought him to this conclusion. He discusses the effects of extreme poverty, including forced indoctrinations into radical terror groups, and outlines why, from a national security perspective, America must lead the international effort to eradicate extreme poverty.
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