Jon Olin ’91 is 2026 Graduation Speaker

We are thrilled to announce that Jon Olin ’91 will be the 2026 Graduation Speaker. Jon is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kinlin Development, a franchise operations and real estate development firm focused on building and scaling consumer-facing businesses, particularly within the quick-service and automotive service sectors. Based in the Charlotte area, Kinlin Development is actively developing and operating Take 5 Oil Change locations across the greater Nashville market.

While at Greensboro Day School, Jon served as Vice President of the student body and competed on the varsity soccer, basketball, and tennis teams, including two state championship squads in basketball and tennis. He went on to attend Davidson College, where he played soccer.

In 1996, Jon helped found ettain group, an IT recruiting and staffing company headquartered in Charlotte. Twenty years later, having grown the business to 10 offices across the U.S. and more than 250 internal employees, Jon and his partners sold a majority stake to a New York City-based private equity firm.

In 2018, Jon wrote 22 Feet, a book about his Davidson College soccer team’s miraculous run to the Division I Final Four without a single athletic scholarship player.

Jon is active in several nonprofits, including Eliminate the Digital Divide (E2D), which helps underprivileged high school and middle school students gain access to laptops and internet service. He also volunteers with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and spends a lot of time mentoring and working with young entrepreneurs and startups in the Charlotte area.

Jon and his wife PerMar live in Charlotte and have three children: Baker, Hayes, and Virginia. He is also the uncle of GDS alumni Catherine Olin ’19 and Brooks Olin ’20.