John Wood helping Illiterate Children

1. John Wood

2. - John Wood is a social entrepreneur, and the founder of Room to Read, a
non-profit organisation focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.
He is also the author of the books Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in
the Battle for Financial Literacy, Zak the Yak and most famously Leaving
Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the
World’s Children.

3. - John Wood was born on 29 January 1964 in Harford, Connecticut. His family moved to Athens,
Pennsylvania, where he attended high school. Eventually, he was able to get his degrees and PhDs
from various universities and colleges that he attended.
- John Wood worked as and executive at Microsoft from 1991-1999. His posts included Director of
marketing for China, Director of Marketing for the Asia Pacific region and Director of Business
Development for China.
- In 1998, Wood went to Nepal for a vacation. While trekking, he visited a primary school with 450
children. He saw that the school only had a handful of books, and none of them were age
appropriate
- The school’s headmaster suggested to him, “Perhaps, sir, you can come back with more books”.
This inspired Wood to get book donations from friends and family via email from an internet cafe in
Kathmandu

4. - In 1999, John Wood came back to the primary school with 3,000 books; all
donated from his friends and family via his email appeal.
- Afterwards, he left Microsoft to devote himself full-time to Books for Nepal, a
side project that will become the base for the organisation, Room to Read, in
which John Wood himself, in 2001, became its founder.
- In August 2006, John Wood published a book entitled Leaving Microsoft
which retells his experiences and is eventually published in 21 different
languages across the world.

5. - He was able to help illiterate people to get a good education, helping them
getting books to read so that they can learn how to read, write, and speak. He
also speaks up for those who are less privileged and vulnerable to the
dangers of the world. He risked his high paying job in order to help others

6. Present by:
Team Echo 49th Singapore Company
Jarrett Wong(Team Leader)
Tang Wen Xi
Chiang Hee Lok
Wong Kok Xuan
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wood_(activist)