How a rug company with Philadelphia origins dating from 1916 evolved into what is now a steadily growing (it is even hiring!) green business specializing in eco-friendly exercise mats is a story with a lesson Jerrehian said all business owners would be wise to heed:
Never blow off a suggestion.
When Jerrehian Brothers was founded by Aram Jerrehian, Dean's grandfather, on Walnut Street, the business offered rug cleaning, renovating, and repair. It later started collecting rugs.
Dean's father, Aram Jr., took over the company in the mid-1960s, renaming it Jade Industries and expanding into production of rug padding made of natural rubber. By the late 1980s, Jade was exclusively in the padding business.
Dean Jerrehian joined the company in 1998, after seven years as a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency. There, he had fought against incinerators that polluted and for cleanup of Superfund sites.
"Tired of fighting with people," he went home to join the family business. Ironically, it was also to take up another fight. His son Matt had been born with a disorder that prevented him from properly metabolizing protein. Because Matt had been tested for the disorder, phenylketonuria, or PKU, at birth, he was treated immediately and the 17-year-old has led a healthy life.
Other children were not so lucky, Jerrehian said. They lived in states that did not require testing of newborns for PKU. By leaving the EPA, Jerrehian was free to lobby for more proactive testing, which has resulted in more states requiring it, he said.
