Ole Andres Olsen  Ole Andres Olsen (28 July 1845 – 29 January 1915) was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and administrator. He was General Conference president of the Seventh-day Adventist church organization globally from 1888 to 1897. Born in Skogen, in Songdalen near Kristiansand, Norway, Olsen emigrated to the United States to Wisconsin at the age of five. By the age of nine his parents had begun to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. He was baptized in 1858. From 1876 to 1877 he attended school at Battle Creek College (now Andrews University). In 1869 the Wisconsin Conference granted him a ministerial license. On 2 June 1873, he was ordained as a minister. The following year he was elected president of the Wisconsin Conference. At the 1888 General Conference session he was elected president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Olsen was the first non-American-born president of this church organization and this is reflected in the global and culturally sensitive approach he took in his presidency. He was also one of the first individuals to advocate the formation of Union Conferences within the Seventh-day Adventist church. He was not reelected as world church president in 1897 and instead became a missionary in South Africa. In 1901 he was asked to head the work of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Great Britain. Olsen died of a heart attack on 29 January 1915. The 1888 General Conference Session elected Olsen as president. However, he was in Europe at the time and did not take on the presidency until May 1889. The 1889 General Conference session, held in October, gave Olsen the opportunity to bring about significant changes and development and turn the Seventh-day Adventist church into a global Protestant religion. Olsen's objectives included addressing administrative concerns as well as implementing a major shift in church structure, accountability, and practices:  Europe: Adventist literature should be translated into the Russian and Spanish languages. There should be more translation of such literature into German. Establish laborers in Turkey, France, Italy, Austria, Holland and Spain. Believers in Scandinavia want, and should have, schools established. Australasia: The Australasian Conference needed a business manager so the leader, Tenny, could do more editing and conference work. Daniells, in New Zealand, needed an assistant. The canvassing work was getting started there and needed to be put on a business footing. South Africa: For South Africa, a Dutch laborer should go back with Wessels to work among the people of that nationality.