Jake Harriman graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy and served seven and a half years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Platoon Commander in both the Infantry and Force Recon. During his military service, Jake led four operational deployments, including two combat tours in Iraq. From his experience Jake learned that the “War on Terror” wouldn’t be won on the battlefield alone: the contributing causes of terrorism, including extreme poverty, must also be eradicated in order to defeat terrorism. This carved a new direction in Jake’s life.

Following his service, Jake enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business to gain the business acumen he would need to follow this new direction. While at Stanford, Jake founded Nuru International to eradicate extreme poverty in the world’s most unstable, vulnerable regions to help end violent extremism. Following graduation, he led a team within Nuru to create Nuru Kenya later that year, Nuru Ethiopia in 2013, and Nuru Nigeria in 2018, all resulting in successful “proof of concept” projects for the organization. Nuru’s latest project is in northern Burkina Faso. Since 2009, Nuru has impacted over 350,000 people, empowering them to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. From 2017-2019, Jake helped draft, introduce and work to pass groundbreaking new legislation called the Global Fragility Act of 2019 that equips America with new authorities and resources to prevent conflict and stabilize some of the most fragile regions of the world.

​

Due to the desperate condition of the U.S. political system, Jake has now turned his attention to helping protect the American Democratic experiment, which he fears is on the brink of failure, a failure that would have terrible global consequences. Jake is the Founder of More Perfect Union, a veteran-led movement to heal the divide in the nation by creating meaningful connections through civics, service, and leadership. He is now the Founder and CEO of Conservative Leadership Network, a movement to build the new Republican Party for pragmatic, country-first conservatives.

​

Jake has received several honors including the Unsung Hero of Compassion presented by The Dalai Lama (2014), White House Champion of Change (2014), Presidential Leadership Scholar (2015), and 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs presented by Goldman Sachs (2015). He is also a Council Member of NationSwell (2016), an Unusual VC Academy Partner (2018), and a Truman National Security Fellow (2018). Jake has been interviewed on ABC, BBC World Service, CNN, Fox Business and MSNBC’s Morning Joe and received coverage in the Christian Science Monitor, Devex, Forbes, Huffington Post, The New York Times, Stanford Magazine, Fox News, and others.