About Us
Jon Olson
Jon serves as the President of Olson Search International, Inc. – Forest Products Group. He began his recruiting career twenty-one years ago with the Sales Consultants division of Management Recruiters International (MRI). In his 13-year career with MRI, Jon earned recognition and numerous awards as a top recruiter, and played a key role in developing ideas that later came to be widely implemented throughout the organization. He pioneered the specialty focus in the forest products industry for the company. For each of his last five years with the company, Jon was a “National Top 10″ award winner and became a member of the MRI Hall of Fame.
In 1999, Jon made the decision to leave MRI, and helped to found and build a new company, Recruiter Solutions International (RSI). RSI is now a division of BackTrack, Inc., a national employment screening company that has been recognized as an INC 500 fastest-growing, privately-held company.
Thirteen years ago, Jon began to transition his business from straight contingency to priority search (partial retainer) or fully-retained search. Since that time, virtually all of his business is structured as one of these retained options. At the same time, Jon assembled a Project Team with expertise in the industry in order to provide a more comprehensive and customized recruiting approach to each company in a more time-efficient manner. The Project Team has become an integral part of the Forest Products Group and consists of researchers and team members who are experienced and educated in the various aspects of the forest products and building products industries.
Jon is a member of The Pinnacle Society, which is considered North America’s premier consortium of the top recruiters within the permanent placement and search industry. He is pleased to be affiliated with the Forest Industry Network, be an associate member of NAWLA/North American Wholesale Lumber Association, NHLA/National Hardwood Lumber Association, CPA/The Composite Panel Association and maintains close professional ties with BackTrack, Inc.
Betty Olson
Betty holds the positions of Director of Project Management and Corporate Secretary/Treasurer of Olson Search International, Inc. She joined MRI’s Forest Products Group in 1993 as the first Project Team member. She has extensive experience in search project design, team management and training, and candidate recruitment with specific strengths in the areas of forestry and timber management, composite panels, biomass energy, and for positions in the forest products and building products industries that require senior-level financial, logistics or engineering executives.