On October 29, former Elliot Health System CEO Douglas Dean and Whelen Engineering President John Olson will accept Lifetime Achievement awards at the Business and Industry Association’s 101st Annual Dinner, Lifetime Achievement and New Hampshire Advantage Awards Celebration at the Radisson Hotel/Center of New Hampshire in Manchester.
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes business leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to leadership in their professions, communities and NH. Award recipients help shape their local communities and the state through their successful business endeavors, active participation in civic and town organizations, involvement in boards, and service to local and state government.
Dean is the immediate past president and chief executive officer of Elliot Health System where he served for 16 years. Prior to assuming this position in 1999, Dean was president and chief executive officer of Optima Healthcare. He also served as executive vice president of Loyola University Health System and was president of West Suburban Health Care Corporation from 1990 to 1998.
Dean serves on the George Washington University Health Services Management and Leadership Alumni Board. He previously served as the metro delegate for the American Hospital Association Regional Policy Board 1 and served on the boards of the Business and Industry Association, Greater Manchester YMCA and American Red Cross Greater Manchester Chapter. Dean is a fellow member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Niagara University and obtained a master’s degree in health services administration from George Washington University.
Olson is president of Whelen Engineering Co., a manufacturer of emergency warning systems. He graduated from the University of NH with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and joined the Coast Guard. He was hired by Whelen, which was founded in 1954 in Illinois and later moved to Connecticut, and was its first full-time employee, serving as manager and chief engineer until being elected president in 1976.
In 1984, Olson decided to locate a facility to NH, where the company now employs 1,000. Another 600 work in Whelen's Connecticut facility and there are numerous employees in various offices worldwide. The company serves the aviation, marine, police, DOT and private security industries.
Olson was the chief engineer for the Deep River, Conn. fire department for 40 years and a volunteer ambulance driver for 30 years. He has served on various zoning and planning boards, is on the UNH College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Advisory Board and the Governor’s Advanced Manufacturing and Education Commission. Recently, Olson created the Little League of Manufacturing, a program that allows high school students to complete a 15-week course in a factory and earn school credit.
Last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipients were New England Wire Technologies Chairman Wendell Jesseman and former NH House Speaker Donna Sytek.
Recipients from prior years include Stephen Barba, the Balsams Grand Resort; John Broderick, former N.H. Supreme Court chief justice; John Collins, Dartmouth-Hitchcock; John Crosier, Business and Industry Association; Patrick Duffy, P. Duffy and Associates; Sylvio Dupuis, Notre Dame College; Lew Feldstein, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; Courtland Freese and George Freese, Jr., Globe Manufacturing Co.; John Frisbee, New Hampshire Historical Society; William S. Green, Sheehan, Phinney, Bass and Green; Saul Greenspan, Seco; Judd Gregg, former U.S. senator; Eli Isaacson, Isaacson Structural Steel; Andrew Lietz, University System of New Hampshire; Malcolm McLane, Orr and Reno; Jack Middleton, McLane, Graf, Raulerson and Middleton; John Morrison II, Hitchiner Manufacturing; J. Bonnie Newman, Kennedy School of Government; Walter Peterson, Franklin Pierce College; Henry Powers, Sprague Energy; David Putnam, Markem Corp.; Dr. Stephen Reno, University System of New Hampshire; F. Fuller Ripley, Troy Mills; William Ruger, Sr., Sturm Ruger and Co.; Neil Tillotson, Tillotson Corp.; James Varnum, Dartmouth-Hitchcock; James Wagner, Nexfor Fraser Papers; Ray Wieczorek, Wieczorek Insurance; and Kimon Zachos, Sheehan Phinney Bass and Green.
Tickets for the 101st Annual Dinner, Lifetime Achievement and New Hampshire Advantage Awards Celebration presented by Public Service of New Hampshire are $1,100 for a table of 10 or $125 per person and may be purchased online at BIAofNH.com/events. For more information, call 603-224-5388 x116.
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