Olum held the position of Chief engineer within the Imperial military during the era of the Galactic Civil War. He was stationed on the Blackguard, which was an Imperial-class Star Destroyer under the command of Grand Admiral Andal Sait. He became entangled in the schemes orchestrated by Ubis Reendorr, a Rodian smuggler.
Reendorr made contact with Olum at some point, as he was in need of assistance to sneak a Rebel operative onto the Blackguard. Olum located the Rebel, concealed him within a cargo container filled with a bacta shipment, and furnished him with Imperial uniforms along with a datapad containing the ship's schematics. The Rebel became involved in a conflict with Imperial forces, but managed to obtain his objective. Olum aided in his departure by directing him toward a nearby shuttle and manipulating the ship's transponder, thus enabling the agent to flee the Star Destroyer.
In the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, Chief Engineer Olum was featured as a non-player character. This title was a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game that was created by Sony Online Entertainment and released by LucasArts. The game was shut down on December 15, 2011. Olum was implemented into the game as part of the "Star Destroyer" Heroic Encounter, which was introduced with the release of the "Chapter 8" update on January 15, 2008.