Management Team
Rob Holmes: Founder & President
Rob has a unique and diverse background in media production, adventure travel, conservation, and business startups. First, Rob has been a well-known freelance photojournalist and adventure traveler for over 17 years. His work has focused on social, environmental, and sustainability projects through travels to over 50 countries. A popular speaker and guest lecturer, Rob has given over 50 lectures, 50 exhibitions, and has 15 press placements in newspapers, magazines, and websites to his credit.
Rob has worked extensively within the outdoor and adventure travel industries for over 15 years with companies such as Recreational Equipment Incorporated (R.E.I.), Eastern Mountain Sports (E.M.S.), and Trails.com. Specifically, Rob authored the original Trails.com business plan and helped direct the company to become the #1 outdoor and adventure travel lifestyle website. He also managed all interactive media sales, business development, marketing, sales, and public relations. After selling the company in 2006, Rob brings a wealth of knowledge on how to successfully build, promote, and sell businesses to corporate partners, media, and consumers.
Within the conservation industry, Rob has worked and consulted with over 20 leading nonprofit organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, International Snow Leopard Trust, Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Woodland Park Zoo. His area of expertise has been strategic planning, marketing, sales, and business development.
Rob received a BA in Environmental Biology & Wildlife Management from Hobart College in 1992 and an MBA in International Business, Environmental Management, & Marketing from University of Washington in 1999. Rob lives in Los Angeles with his wife Joy.
John Canning: Executive Producer
John’s career has spanned media production, delivery and platforms for over 20 years. John runs MediaSherpa Consulting and Productions which does digital media and game technology work for major companies such as Disney as well as small startups. In addition, MediaSherpa does production work for the Vatican, the Monaco Film Festival and ARC – The A&R Channel.
Prior to MediaSherpa, John served in several roles including Senior Producer and Project Manager for Yahoo! Studios and Yahoo! News overseeing original productions as well as Director of Content Distribution and Field Producer for Richard Bangs Adventures.
Before Yahoo, John was a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft’s eHome Division where he led external evangelism for applications and services for eHome, working with external third parties in the areas of media and data distribution, content, and whole home control and services. In addition, he was Product Manager for the Microsoft TV division where he was responsible for VOD, interactive services, conditional access and billing integration into the MSTV Server solution.
John’s career in media-focused technology began on the hardware side at Scientific Atlanta, where he was an RF Engineer and Application Architect in the Set Top Box and Cable Modem divisions. Since then, his career has spanned the gamut of media technologies, providing him with unique insight into the influences and balances among those technologies, and how they can best be employed.
