Ronald G. Olson co-founded Winmark in 1986 a publicly traded company. He held the positions of Co-Chairman, President and CEO until 2000. Winmark franchises value retail Brands, including Play It Again Sports, Plato’s Closet, Once Upon A child and Music Go Round, that grew from one location to currently over 1300 franchise locations in the USA, Canada and Japan. Both Inc. and Fortune magazines put Winmark at the top of their lists of fastest growing small public companies in 1994. Olson was named Minnesota Entrepreneur of Year in 1996. In 2006 he founded NTY Franchise Company a private company that franchises value retail Brands, including Clothes Mentor and Childrens Orchard currently have 150 location in the United States. Mr. Olson graduated from North State University, where he is serving on the Board of Trustees. Ronald is married to Kaye and are parents to 2 children and have 6 grandchildren.
