2. Intro to John’s life
• John Wood was born in January 1964, in
Hartford, Connecticut, in which he spent his early
childhood. He holds a bachelor's degree from the
University of Colorado, and a master's degree in
business administration from the Kellogg Graduate
School of Management at Northwestern University.
• From 1991-1999, John Wood worked as an executive
for Microsoft. His positions included Director of
Marketing for Australia, Director of Marketing for the
Asia-Pacific region and Director of Business
Development for Greater China.
3. Continued…
• However one day, Wood decided to take a
vacation from his work in 1998 to trek through
the Himalayas. While trekking, he met a
“resource director” for the schools in the
Annapurna Circuit of Nepal, where he visited a
primary school that contained 450 children and
only a handful of books—none age-appropriate.
Upon seeing Wood's reaction to the lack of
books, the school’s headmaster
suggested, "Perhaps, sir, you will someday come
back with books," which inspired Wood.
4. Room to Read
• Wood officially co-founded Room to Read in 2001
with Dinesh Shrestha and Erin Ganju. Currently
operating in ten countries throughout Asia and
Africa
(Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South
Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia)
the organization focuses on increasing literacy
and gender equality in education in developing
countries. Its programs develop literacy skills and
a habit of reading among primary school
children, and help girls to complete secondary
school with the relevant life skills to succeed in
school and afterwards.
5. Continued…
• The organization celebrated its tenth anniversary
in 2010, which included the opening of its
10,000th library, construction of its 1,000th
school, and support of its 10,000th girl through
the organization's Girls' Education program.
• As of July 2012, Room to Read has established
over 1,600 schools and 13,500
libraries, distributed 11 million books, and
published 707 local-language children's books—
benefiting 6 million children to date.
6. Credits & Team Members
• Wikipedia Darren Fang
Lim Chun Hong
