John Hendricks (born March 29, 1952) is the founder and former chairman of Discovery Communications, a broadcasting and film production company which owns the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet networks, among other ventures. On March 20, 2014, after 32 years at the helmet, he made public his decision to retire early from the board and leadership of Discovery Communications after the annual shareholders' meeting of May 16, 2014, and he moved on to lead the new large ontaking, The Curiosity Project.