He was a son of landowner and industrialist Thomas Stang. He was a paternal grandson of landowner Ole A. Stang and Emma Heiberg, grandnephew of ship-owner Jørgen Breder Stang, great-grandson of landowner Mads Wiel Stang and politician Axel Heiberg and nephew of Axel Heiberg Stang.
Ole A. Stang took an economist education in the United States. He has been credited with saving the family business from economic failure, and refined it into the modern snack company Maarud. Production facilities for potato chips and dessert cheese were erected at the family farm.
He died of cancer in November 1998 and was buried at Ullern in Sør-Odal.
