Michael Kolowich | |
---|---|
![]() Michael E. Kolowich | |
Born | |
Education | Harvard College (AB) Harvard Business School (MBA) |
Occupation(s) | Technology and digital media entrepreneur |
Spouse | Kirstin Gail Lynde |
Children | James, Stephen, Lindsay, Robert, Lucy Alexander (stepdaughter), Caroline Alexander (stepdaughter) |
Website | DigiNovations; OpenExchange Inc. |
Michael Edmund Kolowich (born August 28, 1952) is an American new media and internet content entrepreneur and documentary filmmaker. He is chief product officer of College Guidance Network, Inc. and serves on the board of directors of OpenExchange Inc, where he was formerly chief content officer. He was founder and CEO of KnowledgeVision Systems Incorporated, which merged into OpenExchange in October, 2019. He was a partner at Bain & Company, chief marketing officer for Lotus Development Corporation, founding publisher and columnist for PC/Computing magazine, was founder and president of Ziff-Davis Interactive (now ZDNet), served as president of AT&T New Media, was chairman, president and CEO of Individual Incorporated, and co-founded NewsEdge Corporation.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Kolowich is the eldest son of Raymund Frederick Kolowich and Marilynn Convery. After growing up in Michigan, he attended Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and received his A.B. in 1974 from Harvard College, with a concentration in Engineering and Applied Physics/Computer Sciences. While at Harvard, Kolowich was news director of WHRB, Harvard Radio.
Kolowich later returned to Harvard to attend Harvard Business School, from which he received an M.B.A. with distinction in 1980.
After college in 1974, Kolowich joined the news staff at WBZ-TV in Boston as assignment editor. After a year at WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, Kolowich returned to WBZ-TV as producer of "Eyewitness News at Eleven." In 1976, Kolowich became an on-air reporter for "The Ten O'Clock News" at WGBH-TV in Boston, and was awarded an Emmy Award for a series on aviation safety.
After returning for two years of graduate school at Harvard, Kolowich joined the management consulting firm of Bain & Company, where he was best known for his work during the turnaround of Chrysler Corporation and his leadership on the employee buyout of Weirton Steel Corporation in 1983, leading to the bankruptcy of Weirton Steel within the next decade. He became a vice president and partner in Bain in 1984, the year of its founding, leading to years of predatory lending practices.
In 1985, Kolowich took a leave of absence from Bain to join the rapidly growing Lotus Development Corporation as corporate vice president, marketing and business development. After a company reorganization in 1987, he took line responsibility for all of Lotus' non-spreadsheet products, including Freelance Graphics, Agenda, Magellan, and Manuscript. He was responsible for negotiating and signing the development agreement with Iris Associates that gave Lotus the long-term rights to market the pioneering groupware product, Lotus Notes. This same year, Lotus Notes sued various other software companies over 'Look and Feel' cases. Lotus, known for its behind the curve move towards the impending internet, took a similar note in these cases, suing of infringements that did not exist. This led to the creation of the Free Software Foundation, that in turn held protests outside the Lotus offices.
In 1988, William B. Ziff, Jr. personally recruited Kolowich to become founding publisher and columnist for a new computer magazine for Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Launched as PC/Computing, the magazine reached a circulation of more than 1 million within five years.
In 1991, as he moved PC/Computing's headquarters from Boston to Foster City, California, Kolowich took over all of Ziff Davis' electronic publishing efforts, consolidating them under the name Ziff-Davis Interactive. The most notable product of these efforts was ZDNet, an online complement to Ziff-Davis' print publications, which later became the most valuable property in the Ziff-Davis portfolio. In 1994, when the Ziff family disposed of its publishing properties, Kolowich brought the company's online technology division, called the Interchange Online Network, to AT&T, where Kolowich was named president of AT&T New Media Services.
In 1996, Kolowich was named chairman, president and CEO of Individual Incorporated, an internet news filtering company that earlier that year been one of the first web content companies to go public successfully. In 1998, Kolowich negotiated a merger-of-equals with competitor Desktop Data, and co-founded NewsEdge Corporation, which was subsequently sold in 2001 to The Thomson Corporation.
In 2001, Kolowich founded DigiNovations as a multimedia production company that would apply video and multimedia technology to telling the stories of New England companies, organizations, and educational institutions. He has produced corporate and institutional documentary films for, among other clients, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Museum of Science, Boston, Sacred Heart University, and Genzyme Corporation. He was architect and producer of Mitt TV, the internet TV channel of the Mitt Romney 2008 presidential campaign, and served on the board of Piper Aircraft and AmSafe Inc.
Michael Kolowich has served as a Museum Advisor for Museum of Science, Boston, where he was vice-chairman of the Program Advisory Committee, served on the President's Council of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and is past president and commissioner of Concord-Carlisle Youth Baseball & Softball. He was also an officer of the National Professional Videographers Association and is a trustee emeritus of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.
Lotus Software was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was sold to India's HCL Technologies in 2018.
TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. At the height of its six-year run, TechTV was broadcast in 70 countries, reached 43 million households, and claimed 1.9 million unique visitors monthly to its website. A focus on personality-driven product reviews and technical support made it a cultural hub for technology information worldwide, still existing today online through its former hosts' webcasts, most notably the TWiT Network.
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, internet connectivity services, gaming and entertainment brands, and cybersecurity and martech tools. Previously, the company was predominantly a publisher of hobbyist magazines.
ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Ziff Davis. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication. After being under the ownership of CNET Networks (2000–2008), CBS Corporation/ViacomCBS (2008–2020), and Red Ventures (2020–2024), ZDNET was reacquired by Ziff Davis in August 2024. CNET was included in the acquisition as well.
WGBH-TV, branded GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
PC/Computing was a monthly Ziff Davis publication that for most of its run focused on publishing reviews of IBM-compatible hardware and software and tips and reference information for users of such software and hardware.
The WGBH Educational Foundation, doing business as GBH since August 2020, is an American public broadcasting group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1951, it holds the licenses to all of the PBS member stations in Massachusetts, and operates its flagship station WGBH-TV, sister station WGBX-TV, and a group of NPR member stations in the state. It also owns WGBY-TV in Springfield, which is operated by New England Public Media under a program service agreement.
Dan Rosensweig is an American business executive who is chairman, president and former chief executive officer (CEO) of student services company Chegg. Previously, Rosensweig served as president and CEO of Guitar Hero; COO at Yahoo!; president of CNET, and president and CEO of ZDNet.
James Louderback is the CEO of VidCon, and was previously the CEO of Revision3. He has had numerous jobs in media companies involved in technology, most notably with TechTV and editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. He is also well known as the television host of TechTV's Fresh Gear for three years from 1998 to 2000.
Eckhard Pfeiffer is a businessman of German ancestry, who served as president and CEO of Compaq from 1991 to 1999. He was named as one of Time's "Cyber Elite Top 50" for 1998.
A month of bugs is a strategy used by security researchers to draw attention to the lax security procedures of commercial software corporations.
CNET is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. CNET originally produced content for radio and television in addition to its website before applying new media distribution methods through its internet television network, CNET Video, and its podcast and blog networks.
David Allen Gewirtz is a journalist, author, and U.S. policy advisor working in technology and national security policy. He currently serves as director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
Edward M. Esber, Jr. is semi-retired in Park City, Utah. Ed spends his time helping the State of Utah, Utah Law enforcement and the Silicon Slopes entrepreneur community in Utah.
Alfred R. Kelman is an American film and television documentary producer and director, renowned for his work on The Body Human and the 1984 television adaptation of A Christmas Carol, starring George C. Scott.
Mary Jo Foley is an American freelance technology writer, author, podcaster and news editor. She regularly writes news, previews, and reviews for Microsoft's strategy, products and technology. Foley has been covering news on Microsoft Windows, and previously on Unix-related technology, since 1983, for publications including ZDNet, eWeek, Baseline, Redmond magazine,PC Magazine, and Directions on Microsoft.
Gina Smith is an American entrepreneur, author, and journalist who co-wrote Steve Wozniak's 2006 autobiography iWoz. In 2001, Smith was named one of the 100 most influential people in technology by Upside magazine.
Aox Inc. was a privately run American technology corporation founded by Michael and Linda Aronson in 1978. Over the course of its 22-year lifespan, the company chiefly developed software and hardware for IBM's PC and compatibles, for the Personal System/2, and for the Macintosh. In its twilight years, the company designed multimedia and teleconferencing devices and chip designs. Aox was founded after Michael Aronson graduated from Harvard University with a doctorate in physics; he stayed with the company until 2000, when he incorporated EndPoints Inc. and switched to full-time fabless semiconductor design.
Cumulus Corporation was an American computer peripheral and system manufacturer active from 1987 to 1993. Based in Beachwood, Ohio and started by Tecmar founder Martin Alpert, the company set out to exclusively manufacture expansion products for IBM's Personal System/2 (PS/2) family of computers—mainly RAM expansion cards. It later released cross-platform CPU upgrade cards and memory expansion cards for other platforms besides the PS/2. Beginning in 1990, the company began trading as Cumulus Computer Corporation and began releasing complete systems of their own. Initially a success story for the tech industry in Cleveland, a botched stock launch in 1992 proved disastrous for the company's ailing cash flow situation, and in 1993 the company was liquidated amid massive debt to suppliers and lenders.