Our Leadership

Brad focuses on developing and strengthening Olsson’s position in the consulting industry and establishing the firm’s long-term vision and strategy. He is responsible for evaluating growth strategies, allocating capital, communicating with shareholders, engaging the community, nurturing key client relationships, and recruiting and developing the next leaders for the firm.

Brad has been with Olsson since 1996; he has served as an Executive Team member since 2007 and has held the titles of executive vice president and president before being named our chief executive officer and chairman in 2016. He has been a member of our board of directors since 2014 and also serves as corporate treasurer.

Prior to his executive leadership, Brad served as a senior project manager and civil engineer for commercial and residential development projects, directing site layout and entitlement processes for large retail shopping and lifestyle centers located in several Midwestern and Southwestern metropolitan centers.

Brad has been, and continues to be, involved with several community groups. He is currently serving on the Omaha Sports Commission Board of Directors and the Papillion La Vista Community Schools Foundation Board of Directors and held similar roles in the past for Support Nebraska, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, and the Nebraska chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. A resident of La Vista, Nebraska, Brad serves on various planning boards and committees and is a trustee for the Omaha-based Business Ethics Alliance. He earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Jeff oversees Olsson’s finance and accounting. He also manages the firm’s capital growth, real estate, legal, information technology, and insurance matters.

Jeff has more than 30 years of management and financial experience in consulting, real estate, and manufacturing. Prior to his position at Olsson, he held leadership roles with Neenah Enterprises, Deeter Foundry, and Deloitte & Touche.

A resident of Lincoln, Jeff is involved in several eastern Nebraska community organizations. He has served as president for the Lincoln-Lancaster County Air Pollution Control Advisory Board and Family Service Lincoln.

Jeff earned a B.S. in accounting and business/management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

John oversees Olsson’s government relations group and works to build connections between Olsson and the public sector. He is responsible for delivering outstanding projects, implementing growth strategies, and building client and community relationships.

John joined Olsson in 1989 and has held several leadership roles, including leading the Civil and Operations teams and the firm’s Lincoln office. John has successfully managed mergers and acquisitions, oversaw the firm’s practice leadership, and established best practices in community engagement. He joined the Executive Team in 2009.

A resident of Lincoln, John was elected as a board member for the Lincoln Airport Authority and has served as national director for the American Council of Engineering Companies of Nebraska.

John earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the son of the firm’s founder, John E. Olsson.

Melissa oversees Olsson's talent, organizational design, and brand and focuses on creating an environment where employees can thrive. Melissa has been a member of the Executive Team since 2008 and has implemented firmwide organizational development strategies to build a growth-oriented, high-performance culture. 

Melissa joined Olsson in 1992 and spent several years leading the Human Resources team. In 2008, Melissa was promoted to senior vice president of business operations. She was named executive vice president of talent and organizational strategy in 2018.

A resident of the Lincoln area, Melissa is involved in several community groups, including the American Heart Association and two Nebraska-based organizations: CEDARS Youth Services and the Foundation for Lincoln City Libraries.

Melissa holds a B.S. in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She also has an A.A. in business administration from Central Community College in Hastings, Nebraska. She has completed coursework for an M.A. in leadership from Doane University in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Ron oversees Olsson's markets, disciplines, and geographies. He focuses on improving our performance, efficiency, structural alignment, and technical expertise. His strong leadership, communication, project and financial management, and organizational skills assist him in keeping his finger on the pulse of Olsson’s various regions, offices, and teams to ensure that plans and  strategies are successfully executed.

Ron most recently served as Olsson’s regional leader for Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. He has also led the firm's Springfield and Joplin offices and was responsible for developing Olsson’s Fayetteville office.

He has an extensive background in both the public and private sectors. Prior to Olsson, he gained experience in both the manufacturing and aviation industries; he also invested in and managed a reliever airport. In addition, Ron has served as city manager for two separate municipalities.

Based in Springfield, Missouri, Ron holds an A.S. in manufacturing engineering from Miami University.

Dave leads the development of Olsson's growth strategy, including sales and mergers and acquisitions. He focuses on accelerating our top-line revenue, evaluating the marketplace to push us toward success, and ensuring our growth is sustainable with the right clients and characteristics.

Dave began his mechanical engineering career in 1995 and has extensive knowledge in project planning, design, and construction of both public and privately funded projects. He joined Olsson in 2001 as an assistant engineer and has served as a technical lead on projects, a team leader, and most recently, the Facilities practice leader.

Dave was instrumental in the meteoric growth of the facilities practice where he worked to develop new services and markets for Olsson. As a practice leader, he focused his attention on growing Olsson's energy, education, federal, health care, industrial, and technology markets.

Dave is a resident of the Lincoln area and holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Sarah oversees Olsson's strategy and operations across the firm's technical markets, ensuring Olsson balances operational success with strong business growth.

Sarah previously led Olsson's Water practice and has also served as the firm's Western region leader. She has expertise in water/wastewater treatment as well as in the development and implementation of permit acquisition and regulatory compliance strategies.

She joined Olsson in 2018 with an extensive background in both project management and client service in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.

A resident of the Denver area, Foster holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. in civil engineering, both from the University of Colorado.

Len works with Olsson's technical business units to develop skills and expertise across our workforce. He collaborates with other Olsson leaders to promote high-quality service delivery and works to increase our capacity to serve a wide variety of clients.

Len previously served as Olsson's Site/Civil practice leader, where he led the transition of our site/civil teams from a purely private-sector development focus to our current mix of public, institutional, and private-sector clients.

He has worked in many different geographic footprints and has a wide variety of client experience, including local, federal, commercial, education, residential, tribal, and data center markets.

A resident of the Omaha area, Len holds a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Jered is responsible for guiding the firm's innovation strategy, including new service line development, technologies, and new ways to expand the firm's offerings to clients. He also oversees the winning work functions within the firm (marketing, business development, client experience, and strategic consulting) to support our consulting operations in growing the firm’s client base.

Jered began his career with another firm in Denver, where he primarily focused on private sector land development. Joining Olsson nearly 23 years ago, Jered was a design engineer and project manager in the Land Development (Site/Civil) practice. He opened an office in Minneapolis to lead growth of the firm’s largest client at the time. Jered was later named an Omaha team leader and led efforts to grow the local team and support growth of the Omaha office. 

In 2007, Jered was named one of the firm's first practice group leaders, tasked with leading the Land Development practice. In 2016, he created Olsson's Business Development function to lead growth of key clients. Building on that growth, he was tasked with leading the firm’s program strategy, which included oversight of the telecom, power delivery, data center, federal, and rail markets. With the recent re-org, Jered will no longer provide direct oversight of the programs, but instead focus on innovation and sales.

Jered currently resides in Lincoln with his wife Jamie and their five children. Jered holds degrees in both civil engineering and natural resources and environmental sciences from Kansas State University.

Meghan is responsible for strategies that promote a best-in-class environment for Olsson's workforce. She works to ensure the firm continues to put employees first and implements structures that support both our technical work and our culture.

Meghan was named senior director of talent in 2018 and has extensive experience in talent development, benefits, recruiting, retention, policy development, and employee engagement.

Meghan joined Olsson in college as an intern. Soon after assuming a full-time role, she relocated from Omaha to Colorado to help integrate an acquisition for the firm. Meghan was elevated to human resources leader in 2013.

An Omaha resident, she received a B.A. in communications from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.