After studying Chemistry at Oxford, Peter Hollins joined the chemical company ICI in 1973. He undertook a series of senior roles in Marketing and then General Management. Following three years in the Netherlands where he was General Manager of ICI Resins BV, he was in 1992 appointed Chief Operating Officer of European Vinyls Corporation (EVC) in Brussels. EVC was a joint venture between ICI and Enichem of Italy which floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1994. In1998 he returned to the UK as Chief Executive Officer of British Energy where he remained until 2001.
From 2001 onwards he held various chairmanships and non-executive directorships but in 2003 decided to return to a full-time role as Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation from which he retired in March 2013.
He became a Non-executive director of Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2010, then SID and Deputy Chair of UHS in January 2014. He was appointed Chair from April 2016.