Ralph Olson retired after spending 40 years in the consumer product and packaging industry.  Prior to retirement, he was Chairman, CEO and President of the R.A. Jones Company.  Jones is the global leader in the custom design and manufacturing of high-speed packaging machinery servicing the top 100 companies in the food, pharmaceutical, beverage and electronics industries. He successfully led the turnaround of this 102 year old privately-held company through three ownership changes in less than 18 months and stayed with the company for the next five years as it generated record sales and profits. 

Previously Olson was President and Chief Operating Officer of Gibson Greetings in Cincinnati where he orchestrated the company to become the largest supplier of greeting cards in supermarkets and drug stores across the country. 

He had the unique opportunity as President to help E-Z-Go Golf Car Company in Augusta, Georgia reclaim its rightful industry leadership position in the golf car industry after it had lost 50% of its business to foreign competition.

He was recruited by the CEO of Sherwin Williams to join the Interlake Company in Chicago where he was the President of the Material Handling Company. He successfully converted the material handling storage company into a warehouse and factory automated juggernaut. The company stock went from 5 to 55 in five years while the overall stock market was relatively flat. He received the Top Gun Award as the Best of Best for posting back to back record years.

He was also President of Sherwin-Williams in Chicago at age 39. He was recruited by their chairman with the challenge that if you are not the president in three years then I hired the wrong person. He was elected President by the board after leading the company to three consecutive years of record setting performance.

Prior to these positions, Mr. Olson had a fulfilling career with Pepsi Cola.  He led the development, manufacturing and launch of the 2-liter plastic bottle, and at age 32 became the youngest Vice President of Pepsi- Cola’s Headquarters in Purchase, New York.  Olson also held various design engineering positions with Crown, Cork & Seal in Philadelphia.  

In addition to his business career, he served as Vice Chair of the Leonard Center at Penn State University for 4 years and served on the Board for 10 years.  He was instrumental in adding ethics to the undergraduate engineering curriculum and was selected to help the university re-write its Code of Conduct after the Jerry Sandusky scandal.  

He assisted two young UGA grads in building a start-up non-profit in Atlanta called Hero for Children.  Hero raised over $2 M in its first two years and provided quality of life programs for children infected or affected with HIV and AIDS.  He proudly served as Board Chair for 10 years.  

In 2018 he developed a business strategy for a Internal medicine doctor seeking to form a Concierge practice. The strategy was successful implemented and patient satisfaction levels were twice the national average within two years. This also allowed  the doctor to make the same income while seeing considerable less patients. Mr. Olson was elected Board Chair and also serviced as business advisor. Unfortunately the doctor developed some serious health issues but Mr. Olson was able to successfully transfer the assets and patients to a local doctor who was interested in starting a Concierge practice. He served as a business consultant and business advisor during its first year.

In early 2022 he co-founded a non profit called Lake Country Aid for Ukraine which provides specific requested medical supplies to doctors and hospitals in Ukraine that are affiliated with Harvard Medical. He successfully recruited a very active 9 member board and co-Chaired a major fundraiser that raised close to $200k in a short period of time. The non-profit expense to revenue ratio was over 90% in it’s first fiscal year.

In 1984, he received the Ogontz Alumni of the Year award at Penn State.  In 2004, he was inducted into his high school Hall of Fame as only the second recipient of the Quest Award for Outstanding Leadership. 

After graduating from Penn State with a mechanical engineering degree, he did extensive work studies at Drexel University and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.   

Awards Received

Mr. Olson has received various awards for leadership, including the Medal of Freedom in 2001, the highest-ranking medal bestowed by the federal government to a civilian.  He also received the Kentucky Business Man of the Year in 2001.