Matching great candidates with great companies for over 30 years

Executive search and recruiting serving the Forest and Building Products industries.

Your success is our success.

Since 2007, Olson Search International, Inc. has connected hundreds of top candidates with the right companies in the Forest and Building Products industries.

Founded by award-winning and nationally recognized top recruiter Jon Olson, Olson Search has enjoyed a long history of client success.

By developing connections with the right people and best companies in the industry, we are able to foster relationships with our clients and match them with the perfect candidate whose skillsets precisely meet their company needs.

Our proven search process and personal approach help companies and candidates grow and thrive for years to come.

Our commitment to our clients

Strong relationships

Our success is a result of the relationships we build – with the clients and the candidates. We’re open and honest with all parties to create a successful match.

Longevity

We’re not looking for a quick fit – we’re looking for the right person. We identify the best candidates who will grow and thrive with the company for years and years.

Methodical Process

From identifying the right candidates to conducting in-depth interviews – we present only the best candidates tailored to your business needs.

Meet The Team

Jon Olson

Founder

With 30+ years of experience, Jon spent 13 years at Management Recruiters International (MRI) where he was a 5-time “National Top 10” award winner and a member of the MRI “Hall of Fame”. He then founded Olson Search International, Inc. in 2007 in order to be able to exclusively devote the company’s time and energy to the wood products and building products industries. Jon is also a member the Pinnacle Society whose members are recognized as the top 1% of all recruiters.

Toddie Downs

Company & Project Manager

Within Toddie’s project manager role, she handles research and candidate sourcing. She also serves as the company’s office manager.

Frequently Asked Questions

We specialize in the following industries:
  • Forest Products (including timberland and forestry)
  • Building Products
  • Mass Timber
  • Biomass-Based Renewable Energy
Our long experience with the forest products and building products industries provided us a foundation to build a strong practice in Biomass-based Renewable Energy products. More recently, as the Mass Timber industry has developed and is experiencing explosive growth, our earlier experience with Engineered Wood Products (EWP) products makes us uniquely qualified to assist companies in finding experienced and talented personnel in that segment as well.

The short answer is – “It varies.”  

Factors include: 

  • The degree of difficulty of the search 
  • How big or small the potential candidate pool is 
  • How attractive – or challenging – your company’s situation is to prospective candidates

Our value to our clients is not only in accessing candidates we have identified on past search projects but rather in our ability to find the best available talent for our clients at this current point in time.

Our long experience and track record of success in the industry.

We are not aware of any recruiting organization that has specialized in the industry for longer than we have, nor any recruiter who has likely done more business over those years than we have.

However, what we have done in the past is not as important as what we can do for our clients now.

The foundation of our company has always been honesty, integrity, a genuine concern for both our clients and candidates, and a proven process built on a true search and recruiting model.

We have enjoyed productive relationships over the years with some very large, publicly-held companies both domestic and internationally-based.

However, the majority of our client companies are very successful, financially strong, privately-held companies.

Compared to a list of Fortune 500 organizations, these companies would be considered small or mid-size companies; however many of these are among the largest companies, or even the dominant company, in their industry segment.

The bulk of our clients are based in North America – most in the US – but also a number of Canadian-headquartered companies.

We have also successfully recruited for a number of non-North American-headquartered clients over the years, primarily recruiting experienced personnel for them in North America.

We have also made successful placements for International and US-headquartered companies in Europe and Asia.

Easiest is to just call us directly at: 800 985-5191, ext 102.

Or email Jon Olson at jon@olsonsearch.com with your contact information and some basic information and Jon will be happy to follow up with you promptly.