With the company’s 70th anniversary approaching in October, Olivas notes he has much to do.
“There is a plan, a strategy and a vision and all those elements that are part of running a business,” Olivas said in a recent interview at O’Neil’s Byers Road headquarters.
Heilman had identified Olivas as the company’s next president early in 2016, and initial groundwork on a succession was being laid. Olivas had been with the company for 15 years, managing O’Neil’s largest defense contract and running its sales and marketing group, among other roles.
Still, Heilman’s death at age 59 was unexpected, Olivas said.
“As I told the other members of the executive management team, the only challenge I see is I don’t know what I don’t know,” Olivas recalled.
The California native rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He flew out to key customers and shared with them his plan.
John McWrightman, a technical publications business partner, said his company, the Hyster-Yale Group, has worked with O’Neil since the late 1990s.
“They (O’Neil & Associates) have the unique distinction of having delivered every project we’ve worked on together on time and on budget,” McWrightman said. “And that’s quite an accomplishment.”
McWrightman is located in Portland, Ore. “We have a remote relationship, but it works,” he said.
O’Neil has a solid network of national customers, doing business with the Air Force and Marines in Georgia, the Army in Michigan and other customers in Wisconsin and Oregon. But company leaders want to strengthen or re-establish connections with local customers and institutions, especially the base.
With that and more in mind, the company is investing $675,000 into a new Wright State University O’Neil Center for Research Communication, with an eye on educating the next generation of workers who can develop, secure and publish technical data.
The company will have a role in crafting curriculum for students in programs that focus on technical data. And a graduate fellow, studying on a Robert J. Heilman endowment, will be part of the center.
“The hope there is that gives us a presence in the area and certainly some access to a resource for employees,” Olivas said.
For about a decade, the employee-owned company has brought in a healthy $25 million to $35 million in revenue a year. Now, the goal is to reach $40 million by 2020.
One way to do that, Olivas said, is to look to the local market and bring on new employees. (Today, the company has about 280 employees total, with about 210 of those in Miamisburg and the rest in satellite offices in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and Oregon.)
He envisions bringing on another 25 to 40 people. Finding the right people can be a challenge, but Olivas intends to get it done.
The company has turned a profit for 17 consecutive years, largely from work with out-of-state customers. Now it’s time to look around Dayton, Olivas says.
“We were born out of the region here,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of business to be done out of the region here.”
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