Alumni Spotlight

By Stacey Schultz

Jennifer Olsen Gets Things Done

UW Bothell MBA alumna Jennifer Olsen (‘05) is one of those people who get a lot more done in a day than most. She currently runs her own company, serves as board president for an international non-profit group, and makes time for her young family.

Her accomplishments have not gone unnoticed: She was recently named to the 2012 “40 under 40” list by the Puget Sound Business Journal, an award that recognizes young business leaders for their leadership and civic contributions.

“I just take it one day, one step at a time,” she says. In truth, she’s more of a multi-tasker. As an undergraduate at UW Tacoma, she initially directed her studies towards a career in medicine. But she was also working full-time at a start-up company and during her senior year, she realized her true calling was business. She graduated with a degree in liberal studies with the intention of someday going back to school for a master’s degree.

In 2003, now holding down a full-time position with a small biotech company, she enrolled in UW Bothell’s MBA program. “Part of the reason I picked UW Bothell is because I knew that the average work experience in that program was fourteen years,” she says. “I wanted to have a cohort of peers that had a lot of life and work experience that I could also learn from in addition to my professors.”

After graduating with her degree, she worked for a brief time at a large human resources consulting firm. She quickly realized that she wanted to create her own work environment that would allow her to spend time with her new child. “I wanted to have more control over my schedule,” she says. “I wanted to still have a career, but work-life balance was really important to me.”

Her vision was to create a company that values both. “Not everybody will have kids, but everybody will have a life outside of work and I wanted to create a company that will honor that and at the same time do amazing work for our clients,” she says. “That was what I set out to do when I officially founded Resourceful HR in 2007.”

While running her business and spending time after school with her son who is now six years old, Olsen also serves as board president for AHOPE for children, the fundraising arm of a non-profit group that provides services to 200 children in Ethiopia who are HIV-positive. The group sends $35,000 a month to program coordinators in Ethiopia to fund housing for orphans, including school, clothes, food and medical care.

Olsen says she continues to receive support for both her non-profit and professional pursuits from the faculty at the UW Bothell School of Business. “Even though I graduated seven years ago, they continue to help me understand new issues and make connections for me. I don’t know if I would have received that level of attention and support at another campus. The professors care about your success long after you are a student. It is a lifelong relationship you form with your peers, professors, and the school itself.”