John Hollar
Chairman, The Vypoint Group LLC
Anatomy of a Hit Program: Behind the Scenes of What Not to Wear
Running A Successful Prodco

John has more than a decade of experience in designing, launching and growing award-winning television and digital content companies. In January 2005 he founded The Vypoint Group LLC, a media investment and development company based in London and Washington, D.C. Before creating Vypoint he was President of Penguin Television, the independent television production arm of the Penguin Books publishing group, a division of the international media company Pearson plc, where he led the company's global television base and the launch of nearly 100 hours of new production. At Pearson he also led the creation of the video-on-demand based KnowledgeBox service for primary schools and homes in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore. The KnowledgeBox won the 2004 BAFTA Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for the best new interactive education product of the year.

His pre-Pearson career spanned media, business, policy and law. He was previously Executive Vice President of the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. While at PBS he designed and led PBS’s expansion into new channels of distribution and was the founder and executive in charge of PBS ONLINE.

He served on the staff of Commissioner Ervin S Duggan at the Federal Communications Commission from 1991 to 1994 as mass media advisor and then senior legal advisor. Before joining the FCC he practised law with Wiley, Rein and Fielding in Washington, DC, and began his career as a journalist with United Press International in Arkansas and Texas.