Read the full article on Nebraska Examiner
(Getty Images)
LINCOLN — Three Nebraska businessmen representing a diversity of beginnings have landed in this year’s Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Hall of Fame.
The 2026 honorees are DJ Eihusen of Chief Industries, Grand Island; Rodrigo López of AmeriSphere Companies, Omaha; and the late John E. Olsson of John E. Olsson Professional Engineering, Lincoln.
Nominations are solicited from the general business community, associations and academia, and winners are selected by a committee of statewide business professionals. The Hall of Fame was established in 1992 by the Nebraska Chamber and University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business to recognize business leaders with notable contributions to the state’s economy and business environment.
Official induction is at a Thursday evening banquet following the chamber’s annual conference at the Lincoln Cornhusker Marriott.
The three honorees:
- Eihusen now heads the 1,400-employee construction company his
DJ Eihusen (Courtesy of Nebraska Chamber) grandfather started in the early 1950s from a garage in Grand Island. (Founder Virgil Eihusen was part of the inaugural inductee group.) DJ held various positions at Chief Industries before becoming president and CEO in 2010 of the enterprise still based there. He has served on many boards, including the Kansas City Federal Economic Advisory Council, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and, with wife Kathy, he was a Heartland United Way campaign chair.
- López, born and raised in Cali, Colombia, came to Superior, Nebraska,
Rodrigo López (Courtesy of Nebraska Chamber) in 1971 as an exchange student and earned bachelor and master degrees from the University of Nebraska. By the time the mortgage company he founded in 1997 was sold to Northmarq Capital in 2015, it had a reported $6 billion multifamily mortgage loan portfolio spanning 37 states. Alongside wife Mary, López developed Capitol Place mixed-use building in downtown Omaha and he remains active in various community roles and boards.
- Olsson, born in New York, graduated from the New York Maritime
John E. Olsson (Courtesy of Nebraska Chamber) Academy in 1946 with a degree in marine engineering. While visiting family in Nebraska, Olsson met with the UNL chancellor and enrolled in its College of Engineering, earning a mechanical engineering degree in 1951. He founded a Lincoln engineering firm five years later and was active in numerous industry organizations. Olsson passed away in 2015 at age 88. The Olsson Room in the UNL Engineering Library honors his legacy.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
