Discovery Channel Communications founder John Hendricks will speak Tuesday about the kind of curiosity and leadership it takes to establish a communications business.

Hendricks will deliver his lecture, ‘Modern Media and the Journey of Discovery: an entrepreneur’s experience in creating a global communications business’ Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. He will address the challenges associated with starting a media business, said Esther Gray, a senior administrator for Student Affairs at Syracuse University.

Hendricks is recognized as a visionary in his field. His lecture will cover his 25-year journey to establish Discovery Communications in face of startup costs, government regulations and changing technology.

Since Discovery’s inception in 1985, Hendricks has expanded the top nonfiction media company into more than 100 networks. Today, Discovery includes 27 entertainment brands, from TLC to FitTV, and operates in more than 170 countries and territories, according to the Discovery Communications Web site.

‘(Hendricks) also has extraordinary experience in facing the challenges of trying to do well in the world…by promoting increased understanding of the world and humanity,’ said Peter Englot, associate vice president for SU’s Division of Public Affairs, in an e-mail.

Pat Longstaff, a television, radio and film professor, said she plans to attend the lecture and encouraged her students to go as well for extra credit.

‘Many of our students will need to become entrepreneurs and they need to see somebody who has done it,’ Longstaff said.

Hendricks’ visit comes after Discovery’s recent announcement of its new TV series ‘CURIOSITY: The Questions of Our Life.’ SU is one of five schools in the nation selected to contribute to the program.

CURIOSITY will offer a chance for SU faculty to lead discussions in the 60-episode television series, which will launch in January 2011. Faculty will have the opportunity to select the topics and questions the program will address, such as ‘What is consciousness?’ and ‘Where are the aliens?’

Discovery is also considering featuring faculty members in the show and in longer pieces that will appear online, according to the company’s Web site.

Cornell University, Georgetown University, the University of Maryland, Princeton University and the University of Virginia are also contributing to the series.

‘By choosing to engage SU in this project, Discovery is acknowledging that our faculty is well suited to play a leadership role in advancing the core mission of the series: to elucidate and explicate the great questions and challenges facing the world today,’ Englot said.

Hendricks also established the American Association of University Consultants, a private consulting organization that focused on television distribution of education programs.

He serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Olympic Committee and the National Forest Foundation. Hendricks has been honored with a Primetime Emmy Award, a Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Genesis Award for lifetime achievement from the Ark Trust.

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on October 19, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride