John Wood

Biography

At age 35, John Wood left an executive career track at Microsoft Corporation to form Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that "combines the heart of Mother Theresa with the scalability of Starbucks" to help children across the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the power of education. Razor-sharp business acumen honed at Microsoft, combined with a passion to change the world makes John Wood a unique, inspiring and popular speaker with universal appeal.

John founded Room to Read out of deep concern that nearly one billion people lack basic literacy and that over 200 million children in the developing world are not enrolled in school. "I was blessed with a solid education which was a wonderful foundation for my future. As a result, I had a great career at a company that encourages people to dream big dreams. I started Room to Read as a way to give that same opportunity to children in the world`s poorest places. Education is a hand up, not a hand out. It is within our power to be the generation that ends poverty, so we need to think big and execute flawlessly." Since its start in 2000, Room to Read has sponsored the opening of more than 750 schools and 7,000 multi-lingual libraries across the developing world. The organization has distributed over 5 million children`s books in multiple languages and supports nearly 7,000 girls with long-term scholarships. John describes these results as "total tip of the iceberg" as Room to Read plans to increase this literacy network to 20,000 libraries and schools serving at least 10 million children by the year 2020. The organization currently operates in nine countries in Asia and Africa, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, South Africa and Zambia.

In his award-winning memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (Collins, 2006), John tells the story of how he raised over $80 million of financial commitments from a "standing start" to develop one of the fastest-growing non-profits in history. The book was described by Publishers` Weekly in a starred review as "an infectiously inspiring read." Now in its 14th printing and translated into 20 languages, it is popular with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, educators, and internationalists alike, and was selected by Amazon.com as one of the Top Ten Business Narratives of 2006 and voted by Hudson Booksellers as a Top Ten Nonfiction title of 2006. The book was also featured during John`s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the resulting "Oprah`s Book Drive" with Room to Read raised over $1 million from viewers. Because of the positive response from viewers, the show has re-aired on numerous occasions.

During his career at Microsoft, John ran significant parts of the company`s international business divisions, including positions as:
Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific
Division Director of Marketing for Microsoft Australia
Director of Business Development for the Greater China region

John holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a B.S. in Finance from the University of Colorado, Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters from the University of San Francisco and Westminster University.

Publications

Leaving Microsoft to Change The World

In 1998, John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft when he took a vacation that changed his life. What started as a trekking holiday in Nepal became a spiritual journey and then a mission: to change the world one book and one child at a time by setting up libraries in the developing world. He was soon driven to leave his career with only a loose vision of the change he wanted to bring to the world.

John made the unlikely marriage between Microsoft business practices and the world of non-profits to create Room to Read, an organization that has created a network of over 7,500 libraries and 830 schools throughout rural and poor communities in Asia and Africa.

The organization is now one of the fastest growing, most effective, and award-winning non-profits of the last decade. John has been recognized in the worldwide media as a "21st century Andrew Carnegie," building a public library infrastructure to help the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the lifelong gift of education.

Titles

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World is John`s first-person account of following his passion, and the lessons learned in doing so. It is a popular "inspiring close" or "bring people to their feet" dinner speech at corporate, industry, and education conferences.

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone is a speech John first delivered at a Microsoft sales conference. With sales reps facing an increasingly competitive and ever-changing economy, Microsoft`s sales leadership team requested that John speak about "what`s possible when a committed person dares to take risks and leave their comfort zone".

Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Change
Leadership is a subject on which John lectures at leading business schools, including University of Chicago, Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton and Stanford. In this presentation, John highlights the leadership lessons that can be learned from the front lines of social change. This is an increasingly popular topic amongst corporations, universities, and membership organizations.