John Donnelly on the Changing Landscape in Exhibition

John Donnelly has 32 years of experience in the cinema industry. He launched the first UCI Cinemas multiplexes in Ireland in the 1990s before moving to Poland to establish multiplexes under the Multikino brand as Managing Director. In 2004, he became Managing Director of UCI Kinowelt in Germany heading up the turnaround of the company’s operations in Germany. Following the acquisition of UCI/Odeon by Terra Firma, John moved to Spain as Operations Director for the group responsible for the expansion of the company in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, and Germany, opening and acquiring 54 cinemas. In 2014, he was promoted to Strategic Programmes Director for Odeon and was part of the executive team that completed the sale of the Odeon Group to AMC. John joined Dolby Laboratories in 2018 as Business development of EMEA and was also on the board of Usheru, a company specializing in movie marketing. Currently, John is Group General manager for Light House Group, an independent chain of cinemas in Ireland. He is also on the board of governors for Rathdown school and is involved in music having just released an album with his band Dark Isle.