“Combining engineering, leadership and entrepreneurship is a terrific synergistic strategic vision for the Leonard Center and Penn State. Today’s successful leaders must have a strong technical comprehension of their product as well as a broad range of business skills that can be blended together into the development of differentiated market strategies.”

Ralph J. Olson

President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
R. A. Jones and Company, Inc.

Ralph Olson retired in 2006 after spending 37 years in the consumer product and packaging industry. Since retiring he has been Board Chair and Director of Hero For Children, a nonprofit in Atlanta, and has been actively involved in a Georgia think tank. In 1995, Mr. Olson became CEO and then Chairman in 1996 of the R A Jones

Company.

Mr. Olson has spent 37 years in the consumer products and packaging industry. Since 1995, Mr. Olson has been CEO and became Chairman in 1996 of Jones, a manufacturer of high-speed packaging machinery servicing the food, pharmaceutical, beverage and electronics industries. Jones serves the multi-national Fortune 100 consumer product companies and is a world leader in its field. He successfully led the turnaround of this 95 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, President of E-Z-Go Textron in Augusta, GA, President of Interlake’s Material Handling Division in Chicago. After three consecutive years of receiving the highest corporate operating award as Vice President, he was named President of Sherwin Williams Metal Container division in Chicago. 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 32 became the youngest Vice President in the Company’s history. He was named Vice President of Operations for Diversified Containers, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pepsi Cola at their world headquarters in New York. Olson also held various design engineering positions with Crown Cork and Seal in Philadelphia.

Mr. Olson has received various awards for leadership, including the Kentucky Business Man of the Year in 2001. He also received the Medal of Freedom in 2001, the highest-ranking medal bestowed by the federal government to a civilian. In addition he serves on the Republican Inner Circle Business Advisory Board. In 1984, he received the Ogontz Alumni of the Year award at Penn State.

He was born and raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Penn State in 1965 with an engineering degree in design technology. He has also done extensive studies at Drexel University and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.