Jim Hollington has worked at the British Council Guangzhou as Director since 13 March 2005, replacing Christine Skinner.

Jim studied Town and Country Planning at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but on graduation preferred the challenges of a career in the private sector and worked as a retail manager for a number of years, largely with Dixons group in the UK, Britain’s largest electronics retailer.

A year out teaching English in 1994 lead to a new career managing language schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. After organising language-learning theatre projects with the British Council in Jakarta, he was offered a full time job managing English language and arts programmes at the British Council.

In July 2002 he was promoted to Deputy Director of the Shanghai office, also responsible for co-ordinating the British Council's arts and cultural work across the five offices in China and Hong Kong. This included supporting links in the creative industries, in particular helping the government in Shanghai identify ways of developing and supporting this sector.