Our Leaders



Tom Olenick - PresidentTom Olenick
President




Tom Olenick is the founder and president of Olenick & Associates and is responsible for daily operations and the strategic direction of the company. Tom founded the professional services firm in 1998 to support a demand in the market.

Tom started his career at Harris Bank, and managed many different groups and teams for Harris. Tom then managed a team of developers at Geneer, until founding Olenick & Associates. During the 9 years of his leadership at Olenick & Associates, the firm has experienced double digit growth for almost every year in revenue and resources.


Al Rago - Senior AssociateAl Rago
Senior Associate




Al Rago is a Senior Associate in the Software Testing and Automation practice at Olenick & Associates. He has 19 years experience in engineering and IT consulting. Industries include Transportation, Manufacturing, Health Care, Financial Services, Industrial Automation, and Utilities. He has performed in the capacity of Programmer, Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Quality & Testing Manager and Director of Quality Assurance.

He has built successful consulting practices and implemented automated software testing strategies in the software quality field for the past 12 years and has extensive experience with automated software testing tools like Mercury’s LoadRunner, WinRunner and TestDirector.

Mr. Rago has served as a speaker for QAI International Quality Assurance Conference, QAI Software Testing Conference, Mercury’s Worldwide Users Conference, STAR East, Chicago Quality Assurance Association and numerous panel discussions and local users' group meetings.

Al earned Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kevin Flynn - Senior AssociateKevin Flynn
Senior Associate




Kevin Flynn is a Senior Associate at Olenick & Associates. Kevin is responsible for business development at Olenick & Associates and the supporting delivery of software testing consulting services. His responsibilities include software testing sales, pre-production and production operations, engagement management, project and product implementation support, and consultant management.

Kevin was a Director at the Chicago based Whittman-Hart, (acquired by) marchFIRST, and (acquired by) Divine professional services firm, specializing in software testing sales, engagement management, and software testing project delivery. Kevin was also the marchFIRST National Practice Leader with testing resources distributed at all of the firm locations in the United States.

Kevin began his career as a consultant at Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, supporting the Chicago Technology Integration Services (TIS) business unit in the telecommunications vertical. Kevin completed several large development and testing projects for telecommunications companies in the Chicago area.

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, Kevin served as a United States Army Officer specializing in Air Defense Artillery and Advanced Maintenance and Logistics Operations and Reporting for a divisional army group.


Rick Lesley - Senior AssociateRick Lesley
Senior Associate




Rick Lesley is a Senior Associate at Olenick & Associates.  Rick has 11 years of experience in IT consulting and has worked on software projects within the Financial Services, Utilities, and Factory Automation markets.  As the Testing Practice Lead, Rick is responsible for the delivery of software testing consulting services.  His specific responsibilities include engagement management, implementation support, consultant management, and continual improvement of Olenick & Associates’ software testing service offerings.  Rick also leads the Practice Delivery Group at Olenick & Associates to ensure client satisfaction across all of Olenick & Associates’ service concentrations. 

Before joining Olenick & Associates, Rick was a Quality Manager at Geneer where he managed the testing and quality efforts for numerous custom software development projects in the Factory Automation market.  

Rick has designed and built automated test frameworks for large-scale functional and performance tests using commercial and open source tools and is currently leading Olenick & Associates’ effort to apply automation methods to SOA implementations. 

Rick earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Gary Cunningham, SPHR - Director of Human Resources & Employment ServicesGary Cunningham, SPHR
Director of Human Resources & Employment Services



Gary Cunningham is an Associate at Olenick & Associates (O&A) and the Director of Human Resources & Employment Services. In his role, Gary is responsible for developing people strategies, directing HR delivery, and overseeing the firm’s employment services. Gary is also responsible for leading the Talent Management Group (TMG).

Gary has 13 years of experience in Human Resource Management and Talent Acquisition supporting both large and small companies in various industries and markets including CPG, Energy, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Information Technology and Insurance.

Prior to joining Olenick & Associates, Gary was an HR Consultant with CNA Insurance and a Recruiting Manager for Ajilon Consulting. Throughout his career, Gary has focused on leveraging best-practices in HRM, HRD, and Talent Acquisition to maximize the effectiveness of an organization’s human capital and contingent labor for the purpose of achieving business objectives.

Gary earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University, and in the Fall of 2007 will complete a dual-degree program with a Masters of Management in Human Resources (MMHR) and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). He also holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation as granted by the Human Resource Certification Institute.

Tom Van Duerm - Director of Finance & Business AdministrationTom Van Duerm
Director of Finance & Business Administration



Tom Van Duerm is the Director of Finance & Business Administration for Olenick & Associates. He is responsible for managing the accounting and finance functions of the firm as well as the internal administration of O&A’s corporate offices.

Tom has over 17 years of experience working domestically and internationally in financial administration, operations and sales/marketing. Tom has worked for both large and small organizations in industries ranging from OEM, wireless, to real estate. Tom has been able to successfully apply his wide range of experience to his position at O&A.

Prior to joining Olenick & Associates, Tom was the VP of Operations for Peoples Auto Parking, a parking and real estate acquisition firm here in Chicago. While there, Tom successfully managed several key strategic initiatives to include a financial system conversion and the automation of the firm’s revenue collection process.

Tom earned his Bachelor of Science from De Paul University in Management with a minor in Accounting.






Ernie Van Stedum - Practice Director - O-SolutionsErnie Van Stedum
Practice Director - O-Solutions




Ernie Van Stedum is an Associate at Olenick & Associates and the Practice Director of O-Solutions. In his role, Ernie is responsible for recruitment strategies, account service delivery, requisition fulfillment, contractor facilitation, and business development. O-Solutions is a practice within Olenick & Associates that focuses solely on augmenting the staff of Fortune 1000 IT departments with IT professional in all disciplines of IT by facilitating contract, contract-to-hire, and permanent placements.

Before joining Olenick & Associates, Ernie was a key Account Manager for Insight Promotions where he was responsible for business development and client satisfaction at The Kellogg Company, Land O’Lakes, and General Mills. Prior to Joining Insight Promotions, Ernie was a Client Manager at Geneer Corporation responsible for consulting engagements with GE Fanuc, Mitsubishi, and Siemens to name a few. Additionally, Ernie has held various roles in Information Technology such as MIS Manager, Systems Engineer, and Senior Developer.

Ernie earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.