Jeremiah “Jere” Harris

Chairman & CEO

Jere Harris, PRG’s founder and chairman, has been active in Broadway theatre production since 1970. He is a member of a family with four generations of theatre industry experience. His great grandfather was a theatre manager in England, and his grandfather was a company manager for legendary producer/director George Abbott. Jere’s father, Joseph P. Harris, is a four-time Tony award-winning producer of over 200 Broadway shows, including Chicago, Dancing at Lughnasa, and That 1940s Radio Hour. Jere’s mother, Geraldine, was a stage actress who performed in such renowned musicals as Guys and Dolls and Silk Stockings. All three of Jere’s siblings currently make their living in the theatre industry.

Jere began his theatre career at age 16 with a job at a Broadway scenic shop. Less than a decade later, Jere was named production manager for Theatre Now, the largest Broadway theatre management company during the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1982, Jere founded Harris Production Services to provide production design and management services to the live entertainment industry. Since its inception, Harris Production Services has been involved in over 500 major productions, including Beauty and the Beast, Starlight Express, Madame Butterfly, An Inspector Calls, Sweet Charity, and EFX, as well as many large-scale corporate events, special events, and automotive shows.

In 1984, Jere founded Scenic Technologies to develop new scenic fabrication and automation techniques for the live entertainment market. Scenic Technologies quickly revolutionized the way scenery is automated through its introduction of Stage Command™, a proprietary motion control system. This system has been used in such popular productions as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and Miss Saigon on Broadway, EFX and Masquerade in the Sky in Las Vegas, Terminator 2 in 3D and Twister at Universal Studios, and numerous corporate events, tradeshows, and automotive shows.

In response to rising client demand for one-stop production solutions, Jere founded Production Resource Group in 1996 with Harris Production Services and Scenic Technologies as its cornerstones. In the following years, leading lighting and audio companies were brought into the group, including Production Arts, Vanco, Bash, Cinema Services, Promix, Electrotec, Lighting Technologies, A-1 Audio, Production Lighting Systems, Light & Sound Design, Four Star, and Westsun. With these additional companies, PRG has become the world’s undisputed leading supplier of entertainment technology, offering complete, integrated, and turn-key production solutions from 16 offices in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.

Jere is currently focused on client support initiatives that will help make the Group’s resources and expertise more accessible to all PRG clients. These include the establishment of client support teams that include specialists from multiple PRG offices and service areas. It also includes the development of web-based tools and other media through which clients can receive information on the very latest in production ideas, technologies, and techniques. These initiatives are expected to offer tremendous benefits to PRG’s customers.