Crisis Communications Veteran Jim Olson Joins Corus International as CCO

Jim Olson has spent 25 years navigating some of the most high-pressure communications roles in corporate America. He steered the media response to the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane landing in 2009, helped Starbucks navigate a national gun policy debate, and built the communications function for Avelo Airlines from scratch. Now he's taking those skills somewhere unexpected: a humanitarian nonprofit.

Corus International, a Washington, DC-based organization focused on ending extreme poverty, has appointed Olson as its chief communications and collaboration officer. The role is brand new for the organization and reports directly to CEO Daniel Speckhard.

A Job Title That Signals Something Different

The word "collaboration" in Olson's title is deliberate. Corus International is itself a complex organization, built in January 2020 by bringing together Lutheran World Relief, IMA World Health, and several for-profit subsidiaries including CGA Technologies and Farmers Market Brands. The portfolio spans global health, humanitarian aid, education, and economic development across Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

Knitting those separate pieces into a single, clear public story is the core challenge Olson has been hired to solve. The goal, according to the organization, is to create a narrative that "accelerates progress toward ending extreme poverty." That's a harder brief than most corporate communications executives have handled.

Crisis Experience That Travels Across Sectors

What makes Olson an unusual choice is the range of high-stakes situations on his resume. At US Airways, he ran communications during the emergency water landing of Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in January 2009. All 155 passengers and crew survived, and the airline's rapid, transparent response became a widely studied model for crisis communications.

At Starbucks, where he served as VP of Global Corporate Communications from 2011 to 2016, he led a campaign that required navigating both gun rights advocates and a grieving family after the Sandy Hook shooting. Rather than impose a firearms ban, Starbucks issued what Olson's team called a "Respectful Request" asking customers not to bring weapons into stores. The approach stopped the open-carry rallies without confrontation. Other major US retailers later sought Starbucks' guidance on replicating the model.

His time at United Airlines, where he served as SVP of Corporate Communications from February 2016 to January 2018, overlapped with one of the airline's most publicly damaging periods. He departed in early 2018.

The Nonprofit Pivot Isn't New Territory for Olson

This appointment isn't Olson's first move toward mission-driven work. In 2019, he relocated his family from Chicago to the island of Mauritius for a 16-month assignment as executive in residence and communications chief at African Leadership University, which focuses on developing entrepreneurial leaders across the continent.

That stint directly informs his move to Corus. As Olson has put it: "You can leave Africa, but Africa never leaves you."

He is also a professor of practice at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and sits on the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations Board of Advisors.

What This Appointment Tells the Industry

For senior communications executives watching from Asia Pacific, the Olson hire points to something worth tracking. Corus, which works with institutional funders including USAID, the EU, and the UN, chose to create an entirely new C-suite role and fill it with a commercial-sector veteran rather than promoting from within the nonprofit world.

That signals a shift in how international development organizations think about communications. Brand narrative skills, crisis readiness, and the ability to unify a multi-entity structure under one story are increasingly valued in the sector, not just traditional media relations or donor communications.

The transition from corporate to nonprofit also carries real risks. Research from executive search firm Kittleman suggests sector-switching executives commonly leave within two to three years due to cultural mismatches. The organizations that make these transitions work tend to hire people who have already spent time in mission-driven environments. Olson's ALU assignment in Mauritius positions him better than most for that adjustment.

As Olson himself has noted: "In today's market, silence isn't neutral. It's costly." It's a lesson Corus International appears ready to act on.