When Olivia Hollaus was undergoing the extensive interview process for the job of executive director of the Boca Raton Historical Society, her answer to a question from left field embodied the spirit she would bring to the role that had belonged to Mary Csar for 27 years.
“One of the questions was, ‘what is your spirit animal?’” Hollaus recalls, to which she answered a dolphin, identifying with its versatility, intelligence and cooperativity. “They look like they’re always smiling and always happy, but they’re very smart, and they know that you can’t do it by yourself; you have to work together.”
Hollaus began her professional life as a fish out of water, moving from Boca Raton, where she spent her formative years, to Beijing, where she had studied abroad while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies and Chinese at the University of Florida. “I literally went back to China to work but with no job in place, [and] did not know where I was going to end up. I picked a random date on the calendar after I graduated from UF and went,” she says.
What began as a one-year plan inspired by her passion for the culture turned into 10 as Hollaus landed a marketing job for a private equity firm, navigating the complexities of the Chinese business world through an affability that lends itself to networking and an uncanny ability to find her footing on any terrain. When she moved back to Boca Raton in 2016 to raise her son closer to her family, Hollaus, now a mother of two, leaned into her love of fashion and dove headfirst into her next venture, Protect My Shoes, a business she started that sells shoe stuffers patented by Hollaus that preserve footwear.
“I had that idea, and for whatever reason, I think it could be my personality—and sometimes this is probably to a fault, where I don’t always assess—I kind of dove in,” she says. “And the idea turned into something that is actually a full-fledged business.”
Hollaus’ tendency to dive first and learn to swim later is one that served her not just in her career but also in her community. Urged by former Boca magazine Publisher Margaret Shuff while Hollaus worked as the publication’s community relations director, the polyglot fashionista joined the board of the Boca Raton Historical Society, where she served for six years, including two as president. It was on the BRHS board where all of Hollaus’s seemingly disparate passions and talents finally converged.
“I really kind of went in very naïve, and I wasn’t sure at the beginning how I would be able to lend my time, treasure and talent,” she says. “But fast forward to today, it really just was a very natural progression.”
“Collaboration” was the mantra of Hollaus’s board tenure, which included the development of family programming, local business partnerships, and launching Summer Sips and Sounds in conjunction with Festival of the Arts Boca. Now, as executive director of the BRHS, Hollaus looks to offer more than just the preservation of our local history.
“I think our times are different now,” she says. “Our members are looking not just for the history side of things, but they want a community, and we are a community within a community. I want to really create a cultural hub. So, yes, the history is still the core of our mission, but I think that what I’m bringing is outside-of-the-box thinking and also collaboration.
“I’m very big on collaborations, and to me, I think that when we work all together, we’re much stronger.”
Foremost among Hollaus’s collaborators is former Executive Director Mary Csar, whom Hollaus still keeps on speed dial. “Mary really ushered in our new museum,” says Hollaus. “During the pandemic we closed, renovated and created this dynamic, interactive museum with all these great exhibits, and she really led that effort. I think that really has changed our trajectory.”
Hollaus looks to maintain and expand upon the trajectory that Csar set for the BRHS by bolstering the society’s educational component and community involvement, as well as by laying the foundation for future success for the society.
“I want to make sure that the Historical Society will celebrate its centennial,” says Hollaus. “That’s my job, to make sure we’re solid, that we’re going to continue on through the decades.”
To learn more about the Boca Raton Historical Society, click here.
This story is from the April 2026 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
