Yuri Hohlov was born in 1954 in the village of Berestovoye, Donetsk region. He graduated from school in the village of Borovskoye, Lugansk region.
He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Kazan State University in 1976. The beginning of his career is associated with the Kazan State University, Donetsk State University, the Mittag-Leffler Institute of the Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Institute of Technology, the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of RAS.
From 1982 to 1988 Yuri Hohlov led a team of developers of a software package that simulates the development of large gas fields in Western Siberia.
In the early 90s, he became one of the founders of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR). In 1993-95, the RFBR information system was created under his leadership, which was also used by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation.
In 1994-95, Yuri Hohlov took an active part in the formation and implementation of the interdepartmental program “Scientific Network of Computer Telecommunications for Science and Higher Education” (Ministry of Science, Ministry of Education, RAS, RFBR).
In 1996-97, when he was a deputy director of the Russian State Library (RSL), a program for the implementation of information technology in RSL was developed under his leadership, which was further funded by the Commission of the European Communities under the TACIS Program.
In 1999-2000, he was one of the ideologists and developers of an interdepartmental program on electronic libraries for 10 ministries and government departments of Russia.
In 1996, Yuri Hohlov began to actively deal with the problems of the information society development. He was a member of the Supervisory Board of the World Bank’s infoDev Program “Developing a National Policy Dialogue in Telecommunications in Russia” (1997). Together with a number of leading experts in the field of telecommunications, informatics, information policy, librarianship, high performance computing and education, he founded in 1998 the Institute of the Information Society, the country’s first independent research and service organization professionally dealing with the problems of the information society. He has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute throughout the history of its existence.
In 1999-2001, Yuri Hohlov was Chairman of the Information Technology Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). He was a member of the International Jury of the Global Bangemann Challenge (1999) and the Stockholm Challenge (2000-2005), a member of the Supervisory Board of the European project DELOS – Digital Libraries Network, a Presidium member of the Virtual University of Europe and Central Asia. He was the Chairman of the Expert Council of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation on regional competitions within the federal target program “Electronic Russia (2002-2010)”, as well as the deputy chairman of the competition committee of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade “The Best Region in the field of ICT”. In addition, in 2002-2005, Yuri Hohlov was the coordinator of the Regional Network for Europe and Central Asia of the UN ICT Task Force.
In 2000-2010, Yuri Hohlov took an active part in the implementation of the Russia Development Gateway project as its technology coordinator. From 2001 to 2012, he served as Chairman of the Expert Council and was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Russian E-development Partnership (PRIOR).
In 1999-2000, he took part in the preparation of the concept of the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in Russia, and in 2007 – of the Strategy itself.
From April 1998 to December 2001, Yuri Hohlov was the chairman of the Public Expert Council of the Moscow City Duma on Information, Informatization, Communications, Telecommunications and Television. Since April 2002, he headed the Public Expert Council of the Moscow City Duma on the Development of the Information Society.
In 2000, a methodological basis for the integration of Moscow information systems was created under the leadership of Yuri Hohlov by order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development (DEPD) of the Moscow City Government and the Moscow Committee for Science and Technology (MCST). In 2001, proposals for the legal regulation of the activities of the Moscow electronic trading system “Mostrade” for the purchase (sale) of goods and services for government needs were developed under the leadership of Yuri Hohlov by order of MCST.
In 2000-2001, the Concept of Moscow’s Move to the Information Society and the Law of the City of Moscow “On Information Resources and Informatization of the City of Moscow” were developed on the initiative and with the participation of Yuri Hohlov. In 2001-2002, also under his leadership, a draft Comprehensive Program for Moscow’s Move to the Information Society (E-Moscow) was developed, which further on was commissioned by DEPD and Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of Moscow.
In November 2014, Yuri Hohlov became the head of a new IIS division – the Directorate of large systems architecture management.
Since 2017, he has been actively involved in strategic planning and development of global, national, sectoral and regional initiatives for digital development and transformation. In 2017, he took an active part in the development of the Digital Economy program of the Russian Federation.
From 2009 to 2020, he was in charge of the IIS Basic Department of Information Society Development at the Moscow Institute of Economics, Statistics and Informatics, now he is the scientific director of the IIS Basic Department of Digital Economy at the Plekhanov Russian Economic University.
In 2009-2012, he was Deputy Head of the Expert Advisory Group of the Council under the President of Russia for the Development of the Information Society. In 2008-2012, he was member of the Expert Council “The Future of Government” of the World Economic Forum. From 2012 to 2017, by nomination of the UN Economic and Social Council, he was coordinator of the WSIS Action Line C7 e-Government. In 2014-2018 he was a member of the Expert Council under the Government of the Russian Federation. From 2018 to the present, he is a member of the Digital Transformation Council and a member of the Digital Public Administration working group of the Autonomous Non-commercial Organization “Digital Economy”.
In 2012-2014, Yuri Hohlov worked at the stock finance corporation “Sistema” as an investment director; in 2013-2014, he was also the president of Intourist JSC. At the same time, he remained the chairman of the IIS Board of Directors.
He was an independent director and a member of the board of directors of Infocommunication Holding Zerde (Kazakhstan) and Intracom Telecom (Greece).
In 2000, Yuri Hohlov became a corresponding member of the Russian Engineering Academy, and in 2004 he was elected a full member of this academy in the section “Information Systems, Computer and Electronic Equipment, Communications and Telecommunications”.
Yuri Hohlov is author of several monographs and textbooks, as well as over 200 articles in scientific journals and the media.
He is married and has two children: daughter Nina (born 1986) and son Alexander (born 1996).