John S. Hendricks is the founder and chairman of Discovery Communications, the number-one nonfiction media company. Hendricks created the Discovery Channel in 1982 as the first cable network in the United States designed to provide high quality documentary programming enabling people to explore their world and satisfy their curiosity.

Hendricks has been the driving force behind Discovery�s dramatic growth including the expansion of Discovery Communications from its core property, the Discovery Channel, to current global operations in more than 170 countries and territories with over 1.5 billion total subscribers. Under Hendricks� leadership, Discovery�s stable of networks now encompass over 100 networks of distinctive programming representing 29 entertainment brands including TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Health Channel and Discovery Kids. Discovery�s other properties include Discovery Education and Discovery Commerce.

As one of the leading visionaries in the media industry, Hendricks has been honored with a Primetime Emmy Award and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences highest honor, the Governors Award, for conceiving the TLC series, Great Books. Hendricks was the first corporate leader to receive the National Education Association�s Friend of Education award for �innovations in education and technology and greatly expanding educational opportunity for America�s schoolchildren.� In 2003, Hendricks was inducted into the Cable Center Hall of Fame, which �honors men and women whose achievements have provided service to the cable industry and contributed significantly to cable's growth and development and to the people, communities, and organizations served by cable TV.�

Hendricks serves on the board of directors of a number of non-profit organizations including the United States Olympic Committee, the American Film Institute, and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. Hendricks also serves on the Advisory Board of Lowell Observatory and the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees.

Before 1982, Hendricks founded and served as president of the American Association of University Consultants (AAUC), a private consulting organization he founded which specialized in television distribution, marketing and fundraising for educational programs and services. Hendricks holds a B.A. in History (magna cum laude, 1973) and an honorary doctorate (1991) from the University of Alabama, Huntsville.