A Norwegian-born American, Ole Andres Olsen served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a minister and senior administrator for forty-four years, becoming one of the most experienced international leaders of the movement’s second generation. He was elected as president of the General Conference at the age of forty-three and served four terms (1888–1897), providing diplomatic, spiritually sensitive, forward-thinking leadership through a difficult period of doctrinal conflict, deep financial depression, and rapid expansion that exposed the inadequacies of the denomination’s organizational structure.