A serial entrepreneur and inventor, Jayden Harman has taken a hands-on
approach to his lifelong fascination with natural fluid systems. In the
process, he has grown companies that design innovative products, ranging
from prize-winning watercraft called the WildThing and the Goggleboat,
to a medical research company that developed a non-invasive technology
for measuring blood glucose, to his latest company,
PAX Scientific. PAX designs
more efficient industrial equipment such as fans, mixers, and pumps based
on Harman’s revolutionary concepts.
Born and raised in Australia, Harman’s love of nature began as a
boy swimming in the ocean near his home. He began his career as a naturalist
with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, but he quickly demonstrated
talents as an inventor. While still with the Australian government, he
designed, built, and licensed a set of crustacean measuring gauges as
well as a range of hovercraft. At the same time, Harman became a leading
spokesperson for the fishing industry in southwest Australia. He was
appointed a director of a government environmental commission overseeing
waterways conservation and shire (county) counselor.
In 1982, Harman founded his first company, ERG, Ltd, which IPOed
two years later and grew into one of Australia’s largest technology
companies, with a capital value as high as $3 billion. ERG developed large
“active screen” billboards, plastic molding systems, interlocking
building bricks, and afterburners for aircraft engines. While CEO of ERG,
Harman negotiated licenses in Hong Kong, Australia, Europe, and the US.
Two other successful business ventures based on Harman’s inventions
followed. The first, Exclusive Acrylic Pty, Ltd, pioneered the use of
mass production thermoformed plastics in global boat production—a
concept that mirrored Harman’s love of sailing. The company later
became a world leader in acrylic fabrication and thermoforming. Harman created the Goggleboat, the world’s first all-plastic, seamless marine
craft, which won the Australian Design Award. In 1990, he designed and
created another innovative boat, the WildThing, which won another design
award as well as Best of Show in several international boat shows. Based
entirely on natural design, these boats were radically lighter and stronger
than comparable boats. As a result, these craft were extraordinarily navigable,
yielded 30 percent greater fuel efficiency, and could be nested in containers
for economical bulk shipping.
An avid sailor, diver, and explorer, Harman also designed and built a
50-foot wooden sloop, which he sailed 27,000 miles throughout Asia. He
has built or restored a variety of other boats, including a 120-foot superyacht
and two 150-foot wooden minesweepers, the Chaleur and the research vessel PAX (sister ship to Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso and John Wayne's Wild Goose), which he still owns.
Simultaneous with Harman’s marine craft development, he established
CSL UK, based in the United Kingdom, to conduct medical research on non-invasive
technology for measuring blood glucose and other electrolytes. The company
later licensed its technology to Boehringer Mannheim. In another business
venture, Harman licensed an award-winning solution for the safe encapsulation
of friable asbestos—an extremely hazardous substance found in buildings
throughout Australia and the United States.
Harman also founded a Rudolph Steiner-based wilderness boarding school in Australia’s Karri Valley. The school housed 66 students, aged 8 to 14, from Europe, Australia, and the US. Harman offered a sailing course for these children in which participants learned about biology, geography, math, astronomy, and world cultures while on extended excursions that ranged throughout Southeast Asia from Australia to Sri Lanka.
The culmination of Harman’s work in natural flow has been the development of the PAX Streamlining Principle, a guideline for translating nature’s extraordinary efficiencies into industrial applications. Harman focused on the science and technology of fluid flow equipment during the 1990s, and began filing patents for PAX Scientific’s unique rotors. Harman’s goal is to show manufacturing industries that more efficient equipment is profitable for both shareholders and the planet. Harman serves as CEO of PAX Scientific, a Marin county engineering research and design firm that uses streamlining geometries to design energy efficient, quiet, and ecologically friendly technology. Harman also sits on the boards of PAX Water Technologies and PAX Mixer.