John Wood is a social entrepreneur and founder of Room to Read, a global non-profit focused on literacy and gender equality in education. After seeing a lack of books during a trek through Nepal, he was inspired to start collecting book donations which eventually led to founding Room to Read. Room to Read has now reached over 6 million children across Asia and Africa by establishing schools, libraries, and publishing books while also providing scholarships for girls.

1. John Wood
social entrepreneur

2. About John Wood
John J. Wood is the founder and board co-chair
of Room to Read, a global non-profit
organization focused on literacy and gender equality in
education in Asia and Africa that has reached over 6
million children. He is also the author of Leaving
Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's
Odyssey to Educate the World's Children and the
children's book Zak the Yak with Books on His
Back.[1][2] He is a member of the Clinton Global
Initiative's Advisory Board and is a frequent lecturer at
Harvard's Graduate School of Education and
NYU's Stern School of Business.

3. His early life
John Wood was born in January 1964, in Hartford,
Connecticut, where he spent his early childhood. His
family later settled in Athens, Pennsylvania, where he
attended high school.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5]

4. Leaving microsoft to change the world
Wood took a vacation from his work at Microsoft in 1998 to trek through
the Himalayas.[5] While trekking, he met a “resource director” for the schools in the
Annapurna Circuit of Nepal, with whom he visited a primary school that contained 450
children and only a handful of books—none age-appropriate.[6] 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 to solicit book donations
from family and friends via email sent from an Internet cafe in Kathmandu.[7]
A year later, Wood returned to the school with 3,000 books—all donated in response
to his email appeal to friends and family.[8][9] Soon thereafter, he left his job at
Microsoft entirely to devote himself full-time to Books for Nepal, a side project that
would eventually form the foundation for Room to Read.
Leaving Microsoft was published by Harper Collins in August 2006. It was featured
on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007, with "Oprah's Book Drive" for Room to Read
raising over $3 million. Leaving Microsoft has been published in 20 languages. It was
named one of the Top Ten non-fiction books of 2006 by Hudson's Booksellers and a
Top Ten business narrative by Amazon.com. The sequel will be published by Penguin in
early 2013.

5. 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 support girls to complete secondary school with the
relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond.[10]
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.[11][12]
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.[10]

6. Impacts that he left behind
Since its inception in 2000, Room to Read has impacted the over 6 million
children in the world by
-Constructing 1,450 schools
-Establishing 12,522 libraries
-Publishing 592 new local language children’s titles
-Distributing over 11 million children’s books
-Funding 14,000 long term-girls’ scholarship
All around the world.