After college in 1974, Kolowich joined the news staff at
WBZ-TV in
Boston as assignment editor. After a year at
WPRI-TV in
Providence, Rhode Island, Kolowich returned to
WBZ-TV as producer of "Eyewitness News at Eleven." In 1976, Kolowich became an on-air reporter for "The Ten O'Clock News" at
WGBH-TV in Boston, and was awarded an
Emmy Award for a series on
aviation safety. After returning for two years of
graduate school at Harvard, Kolowich joined the
management consulting firm of
Bain & Company, where he was best known for his work during the turnaround of
Chrysler Corporation and his leadership on the employee buyout of
Weirton Steel Corporation in 1983, leading to the bankruptcy of Weirton Steel within the next decade. He became a vice president and partner in Bain in 1984, the year of its founding, leading to years of predatory lending practices. In 1985, Kolowich took a leave of absence from Bain to join the rapidly growing
Lotus Development Corporation as corporate vice president, marketing and business development. After a company reorganization in 1987, he took line responsibility for all of Lotus' non-spreadsheet products, including
Freelance Graphics,
Agenda,
Magellan, and
Manuscript. He was responsible for negotiating and signing the development agreement with
Iris Associates that gave Lotus the long-term rights to market the pioneering
groupware product,
Lotus Notes. This same year,
Lotus Notes sued various other software companies over 'Look and Feel' cases. Lotus, known for its behind the curve move towards the impending internet, took a similar note in these cases, suing of infringements that did not exist. This led to the creation of the Free Software Foundation, that in turn held protests outside the Lotus offices. In 1988,
William B. Ziff, Jr. personally recruited Kolowich to become founding publisher and columnist for a new
computer magazine for
Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Launched as
PC/Computing, the magazine reached a
circulation of more than 1 million within five years. In 1991, as he moved
PC/Computing's headquarters from Boston to
Foster City, California, Kolowich took over all of
Ziff Davis' electronic publishing efforts, consolidating them under the name Ziff-Davis Interactive. The most notable product of these efforts was
ZDNet, an online complement to Ziff-Davis' print publications, which later became the most valuable property in the Ziff-Davis portfolio. In 1994, when the Ziff family disposed of its publishing properties, Kolowich brought the company's online technology division, called the Interchange Online Network, to
AT&T, where Kolowich was named president of AT&T New Media Services. In 1996, Kolowich was named chairman, president and CEO of Individual Incorporated, an internet news filtering company that earlier that year been one of the first
web content companies to
go public successfully. In 1998, Kolowich negotiated a
merger-of-equals with competitor Desktop Data, and co-founded NewsEdge Corporation, which was subsequently sold in 2001 to
The Thomson Corporation. In 2001, Kolowich founded DigiNovations as a
multimedia production company that would apply video and multimedia technology to telling the stories of
New England companies, organizations, and educational institutions. He has produced corporate and institutional
documentary films for, among other clients,
Harvard University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Museum of Science, Boston,
Sacred Heart University, and
Genzyme Corporation. He was architect and producer of Mitt TV, the internet TV channel of the
Mitt Romney 2008 presidential campaign, and served on the board of
Piper Aircraft and
AmSafe Inc. ==Civic and professional affiliations==