John C Hollar

John C. Hollar is the Computer History Museum’s President and Chief Executive Officer. 

Hollar was named CHM’s chief executive by the Board of Trustees on July 1, 2008.  His priority is to build a world-class institution with CHM’s unmatched collection and $38 million endowment.  His emphasis is on developing a comprehensive plan for exhibits and programs, completing the $125 million capital campaign goal, and adding an education and research dimension to the Museum.

He brings 15 years of experience in founding, launching and growing award-winning, content companies around the world.  As a senior executive at Pearson plc in London, Hollar founded and led two separate multi-platform content companies: Pearson Broadband Ltd and Penguin Television Ltd.  Both companies produced a broad range of digital and video content for worldwide commercial distribution alongside Pearson’s market-leading education and consumer publishing units.  He negotiated and led multiple strategic partnerships, including a ground-breaking joint venture with China Central Television for television, Internet and published content in Chinese and English.

As Executive Vice President of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Washington, D.C., Hollar was responsible for the strategy development, operations and management of PBS’s Internet, consumer and education units.  He founded PBS’s Internet and digital media group, which from its inception has been recognized as one of the world’s leading innovators in the development of online, video, interactivity and digital media for public service.  He led a five-fold increase in PBS’s ancillary revenues, and raised more than $100 million in capital from strategic partners to expand PBS’s digital and Internet content capabilities.  He also built major strategic partnerships with companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner, BT plc, among others.

Hollar’s content and technology teams have earned multiple Webby Awards, a CODIE award for multi-platform software development, a BAFTA for interactive media and the Milia d’Or for a digital biography of Frank Lloyd Wright, produced in conjunction with the PBS documentary by Ken Burns. 

He joined CHM from his post as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Vypoint Group LLC, a London-based media investment advisory group which he founded in 2005.  Before beginning his career in media, Hollar practiced law in Washington, D.C., and served as a senior legal advisor at the Federal Communications Commission for Commissioner Ervin S. Duggan.  He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Southern Methodist University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.