Jonathan Holloway

Jonathan Holloway, CSP, is a keynote speaker, MC and festival director who has spent thirty years leading creative organisations through change. He founded the public events department at London’s Royal National Theatre, then served as Artistic Director and CEO of three of the world’s largest international arts festivals in the UK and Australia. In each, audiences and income grew sharply, inherited deficits became reserves, and seasonal teams of up to 400 people delivered work that cities still talk about, including The Giants, when 1.4 million people walked with giants through Perth over three days.

In the United States he has advised Brooklyn Academy of Music, Powerhouse International Festival and En Garde Arts in New York and the Charleston Gaillard Center in South Carolina, was the opening speaker at Yale’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and designed an event for then Vice President Joe Biden. He also advises London International Festival of Theatre, the World Cities Culture Forum and London’s Royal Docks, and has worked across Europe, China, Africa and the Middle East.

He speaks on Giant Thinking (how impossible ideas become inevitable), on leading and keeping the next generation of talent, and on why human creativity still cuts through in a world of generic content. As an MC he has hosted events on six continents for clients including HP, IBM, Cisco, NAB and UNESCO.

He holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Citizen of Perth, and has won 20 Helpmann Awards, Australia’s equivalent of the Tonys. He is based between London and Mallorca and works internationally.