Meet the Team

With Meet The HARMAN Luxury Team, our goal is for you to get to know us better. In each edition we feature a different member of the team, and this month it's Clay Wade, Assistant, Global Product Line Management.

How would you describe what you do in your current role?

I act as support for the very talented Global Product Line Management (GPLM) team, creating technical documentation and related SOPs, working on training modules, performing competitive analysis, and, in general, contributing to the definition and implementation of new product lines.

What did you study in school? Did you always imagine yourself doing something like what you’re doing now or did the fates just take you in that direction?

For me, it was difficult to choose one path forward, but I did know that I enjoyed music and physics. During my time at the University of Miami (FL), I was part of the Audio Engineering program. There was one project that likely nudged the proverbial snowball that rolled down the mountain and gathered enough momentum to become a career in audio. During my junior year of high school, I built a standing wave flame tube (Rubens tube) as a special side project to my studies. This was right around the time that school security was tightening, but I had built up enough good will with my parents, the teachers, and the administrators that they allowed me to show it off at the school. Their trust helped to solidify my confidence in my project-making abilities, and the project itself was inspiring. To be able to build and experience such a fascinating visualization of sound waves cast a spell that has yet to fade.

How did your career path lead you to HARMAN?

Before I arrived here at HARMAN, I worked in the U.S. and the EU as an independent audio consultant for North American companies. Prior to that, I worked for DTS and SRS Labs. When my wife and I decided to move to California, it had nothing to do with the beautiful weather, world-class music scene, and excellent longboard breaks. It was 100% because of the exciting opportunity to learn from and work with my world-class teammates in the HARMAN Luxury Audio Group. Ok, it was definitely both. It’s a great combination.

What is the most important thing you have learned over your career?

Planning is essential to success, but if you become too attached to a specific outcome, you might miss serendipity. Stick to principles, not planned outcomes.  

Any other advice you would share with people just starting out in this industry?

Prioritize being on a team with kind, passionate people who are on your side.

What are you most proud of in your life?

Superlatives always give me pause. What comes to mind right now: I’m proud of giving myself the chance to try something new, along with everything that resulted from that decision. It felt dangerous to leave my job at DTS and uproot my life. People around me thought it was bananas, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t have done it any other way. The results are many things of which I’m most proud: my relationship with my wife, my experience living abroad, fluency in another language, and having my own business.

When did you realize you had a passion for music or audio? Was there any one band, song, or movie that did it for you?

When I was in middle school, I had the best percussion teacher that anyone could ever ask for (Mrs. Knabb). She gave us such amazing opportunities and experiences, my personal favorite being our own take on the STOMP show. Looking back, it’s clear that the enthusiasm and connection that she infused into our musical education left an indelible “music mark” on my life.

What current technology impresses you the most?

Language (art, music, film, text, speech, graphics, etc.), along with modern communication methods. One could argue that a large part of any cultural paradigm depends on what is said, how its being said, and who is listening. I believe it to be of paramount importance that we use our communication technology wisely.

Favorite music genre?

That completely depends on my mood. Let’s say Jazz, and several genres derived from it.

The desert island question, of course. If you were marooned for eternity & could listen to only 3 albums, what would they be?

Time Out – The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Prog - The Bad Plus

10,000 Days - TOOL

You have the floor. In closing, tell us anything else you want us to know about yourself.

I fully enjoy watching the first 30-45 mins of a live show. After that, I’m usually wishing that I could jump on stage and join the performance.