Jim Harlan is a successful businessman who began his career in public service. His roots in the district run deep. He and his wife of 25 years, Mary Ellen, both graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans in 1970. Jim earned his engineering degree from Washington University, while working summers on environmental technologies. He was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship, which permitted him to study at Harvard’s School of Government, where he was awarded a Masters Degree in Public Policy in 1977. During this period, Jim was honored with a prestigious Henry Luce Scholarship, to work in Asia on small business development and alternative energy technologies.
Jim began his full time professional career working at the White House Office of Energy Policy and Planning, supporting the development and enactment of legislation to reduce foreign oil imports and improve U.S supplies. He then moved to the newly created Department of Energy’s Policy and Planning Office, working on alternative energy research and development with special emphasis on synthetic fuels from coal and oil shale. The oil price spike of 1979 prompted initiatives to support private industry to build pioneering synthetic fuel plants and Jim supported enactment of the Energy Security Act of 1980. His work in this area led him to achieve his PhD in Public Policy from Harvard and write a book on the rationale and strategy for the major industry-government collaboration required. During the Reagan administration, Jim worked at the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation’s Policy and Planning office to implement the Energy Security Act of 1980.
Jim then returned to Asia to work on economic and business development in a wide variety of businesses. He served as advisor to the owner of an international business group with interests in a wide range of industrial distribution, manufacturing, and real estate endeavors and sales of approximately $200 million per year. Jim led this group to acquire and further develop an innovative plastics molding technology and developed factories employing this technology in Asia and in North Carolina. Jim’s US company earned the 1998 “Product of the Year” Award from the American Engineering Association. At the same time, Jim succeeded as an entrepreneur, providing finance and strategy for development of industrial lubricants and activated carbon businesses. Jim Harlan understands business from the inside out and the bottom line up.
In 1992 Harlan co-founded a company that acquired and developed natural gas storage facilities which help reduce price changes in natural gas markets with changing demand. In recognition of their benefits in reducing price spikes to the consumer, the company’s projects were acquired by major energy companies just before Hurricane Katrina. Jim continues as a partner in oil/gas exploration and production operations right here in Louisiana.
Jim has served as a Director and shareholder representative for two publicly traded technology companies. Until 2008 he was a director of iCAD, Inc., serving on its audit and compensation committees. iCAD is a medical technology and software company saving lives with improved methods for early detection of cancer. Jim continues as a Director of Applied Energetics, a defense technology company with expertise in laser and high voltage technologies which, among other applications, is developing systems to protect US servicemen and women from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Much of the work of this company is defense related, and classified.
Jim Harlan’s business experience is complemented by his dedication to family and community. As an Eagle Scout, Jim has continued to be involved in the Boy Scouts Organization and his son Ryan is following in his footsteps. One of his great joys has been coaching youth basketball and soccer for both his sons Arief and Ryan at Mandeville’s Pelican Park and Soccer Club. He and his wife Mary Ellen are very active in St. Paul’s High School Marching Wolves Band Booster Club.
