EXECUTIVE WATCH
HAYDEN OLSON VP & GM of ERICKSON AEROSYSTEMS By Rick Weatherford
After listening to Erickson Incorporated Vice President and General Manager of Aerosystems Hayden Olson for an hour, one is not sure whether he just concluded an executive interview or finished a life coaching session. The momentary confusion is resolved upon reflection that Olson views all facets of his life as interconnected by his faith and calling to coach others. Thus, he can approach family life like he’s building a high- performing team as he similarly does on the job at Erickson, where his team building is based on interpersonal relationships and caring. Away from family and work, he’s either coaching personal growth and fitness at the non-profit he founded, or he’s being coached by his “Core Four” board of mentoring friends to which he
18 Mar/Apr 2020
holds himself accountable for personal and professional growth. The interview all comes together when one realizes that Olson is not only an executive at one of the leading global rotorcraft manufacturing and aviation service providers of utility aircraft, but he’s also a determined, uplifting coach who expects himself and his teams to consistently perform. Olson is Nick Saban in a Fred Rogers cardigan. Actually, he’s more likely to wear athletic gear and a T-shirt, which is how Olson inauspiciously started his business career.
T-Shirt Travels
“The sun is shining in Oregon in the winter, so it’s got to be a good day,” is how Olson optimistically begins our interview. He’s
particularly partial to sunshine, having grown up in the Sunshine State when his engineer dad worked on the Space Shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center. Immediately after Olson graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2003, he and his best friend, who had designed popular T-shirts on the UCF campus, packed up a U-Haul to strike action sports gold on the California West Coast. “I went out there with him to manage the business side of our new venture,” says Olson, but what Olson managed to learn were valuable business lessons on what not to do when running a small business. “We did pretty good, but didn’t have enough capital to build a brand in California,” he says. “I learned a lot about cash flow and inventory turnover the hard way.”
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