Background & Experience - John M. Olney

Founder & Chairman, Wine Country Marketing & Promotions

Tourism, Customer Services, Marketing & Promotions

Moving to Napa, Calif. in 1985, Mr. Olney pursued employment in the golf, wine and food industries including two golf courses, three winery tasting rooms (Silverado Vineyards, Mumm and Andretti Winery) and one restaurant.

He produced two wine label poster-maps on Napa Valley winegrowers under his own company.

He then began writing both fiction and non-fiction articles and books. He published numerous stories and opinions about Napa wineries and related laws. The list of publications that have presented his work include Suite 101 on the Internet, Napa Valley Register, St. Helena Star newspapers and he is a regular writer for the Napa Elks Lodge News letter and our own Wine Country Marketing & Promotions (WCM&P) blog web site.

In late 2006, he commenced his first fiction book on the California wine industry titled “Entwined Vines.”

As an acknowledged historian on the history of wine in America, in 2007, he began the draft of his first non-fiction wine book tentatively titled “Wine U.S.A. - A Modern Historical Perspective” with the draft of the chapter tiled, “The Gentlemen Winegrowers of San Francisco: The men who really established Napa Valley.”

In 2006, he was selected as one of the top wine writers in America by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and participated in the selection of the inaugural members of the California Vintners Hall of Fame (HOF), located at the CIA Greystone complex in St. Helena, CA. In October 2007, he was added to the Nomination Committee for the 2nd Annual CIA HOF Induction selections. He continued to serve on this very important California Vintner recognition organization ever since and in 2009, the body became the Vintners Hall of Fame Electoral College as was pared to about 45 voting members.

Alternative Energy and Conservation, and

Public Awareness Programs

In 1975, Mr. Olney and partners drafted the federal grant applications for Energy Conservation, Alternative Resources and Public Awareness for the State of Hawaii and the U.S. Territory of American Samoa. His company was subsequently contracted to manage the grants and train local governmental workers to assume management of the grants on a continuing bases.

He was the invited speaker at the South Pacific Forum in 1978 where he traveled to Western Samoa and spoke to the kings, prime ministers and presidents of the Forum member countries. His topic was “Alternative Energy Resources and Energy Conservation for Developing Island Countries of the Pacific.”

His company also implemented the first rideshare program among all the Pacific Islands on Oahu, Hawaii in 1973.

The company also designed and conducted the 1st Energy Fair in the South Pacific in 1975 in the Eastern District of the Territory of American Samoa.

Military Duty and Sciences

He served in the U.S. Navy during the 1965-70 timeframe while stationed in Alaska, California and Hawaii where he conducted detection and tracking of Soviet submarines transiting the Pacific. For the next five years and as a civilian he continued analysis of Soviet submarine operating parameters while employed by Arthur D. Little, Litton, and Pacific Analysis Corp. He then left the industrial-military industry to start his own company.

In 1996 he began writing his first draft of an unpublished novel (14 chapters, 347 pages titled “The SOSUS Man, “on his Navy experiences detecting and tracking Soviet submarine operations in the Pacific Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS). He is currently revising and editing the draft in anticipation of self publishing the novel in the summer of 2009.

The Early Years

Mr. Olney was raised in San Leandro, Ca. where he earned High School All-American honors in the 400 yard freestyle swimming event and was a four time letterman.

He graduated from the College of the Pacific, a cluster school of the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA in 1964 where he majored in Speech, minor in Drama. He was co-star in the play “The Beautiful People, “written by William Saroyan conducted in theater-in-the-round and for his senior studies he produced and directed “Waiting for Godot” written by Samuel Beckett.

He was an eight time letterman (four each in swimming and water polo) and member of the Letterman’s Society (President his senior year).

He was a member of the social fraternity “Delta Upsilon” and was selected as the “Man of the Year” in 1963 by the social sorority “Gamma Phi Beta” in 1963.

In 1964, he was selected to “Who’s Who among American Universities and Colleges.”