Meet the Founder Who Left Microsoft to Launch a Global Literacy Movement

Room to Read is a non-profit organization that gives young people across the world access to books and learning. More than 20 million kids have received books through the program, and the organization had sponsored the construction of over 2,500 schools and opened 38,000 libraries by 2020.

But none of this happened by accident. It has happened because of Room to Read’s dedicated team, led by their founder, John Wood. Today, we’re looking at John’s backstory and discovering how he got here.

An Ambitious Youngster

John Wood was born in 1964 in Athens, Pennsylvania. From an early age, John fell in love with reading, and it fueled a strong sense of ambition in him.

“By the time I was in 6th grade, I wanted to be a journalist,” John said. “I wanted to write a screenplay, write a column for the LA Times, host the Today Show… I had really big ambitions.”

That ambition spurred John forward. He earned a degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he met people from all over the world. Growing up in a small town broadened John’s horizons, and he began thinking about how he could make a difference in the wider world.

First, however, he continued his education. Joining the Kellogg Business School at age 24, John pursued an accelerated program that saw him graduate in a single year, rather than two.

Making Several Great Leaps

With an MBA now to his name, John quickly entered the world of employment, but this was not quite to his tastes. He found a good job at Continental Bank, but wasn’t getting the stimulation he needed. When John’s name came up in a conversation between two old friends, he suddenly found a new opportunity at Microsoft.

This was 1991, and Microsoft was really taking off. John took off with it, eventually rising to the position of head of marketing for the company’s growing Asia Pacific division. His new role took him across the world, first to Sydney, and then to Beijing.

But after a few years in Beijing, his mind started to wander again. A hiking excursion in Nepal gave him the mental clarity he needed to make a change.

Before leaving Nepal, he visited a local library at a school in Bahundanda, but he found it was in desperate need of books. When it was time for him to return to Beijing, the school’s principal said to John: “Perhaps, Sir, you will one day come back with books?”

A Complete Transformation, and Room to Read

John did come back. And he came back with books. Arriving at the school, John was accompanied by a yak laden with reading material. This yak would be immortalized as Zak the Yak (With Books On His Back), a children’s story written by John about the experience, and illustrated by Nepalese artist Abin Shrestha.

But John did not stop there. In 1999, he dropped a bombshell on his bosses back in Beijing – he would be leaving his lucrative position at Microsoft. Instead, he founded Room to Read with Dinesh Shrestha and Erin Ganju, a charity initiative aimed at bringing more books to more children in more locations around the world.

He didn’t completely leave his old life behind. John’s business experience has certainly come in very handy as he expanded the Room to Read program across 18 countries, distributing more than 25 million books in the process.

John Wood’s Ongoing Mission

John’s story has featured plenty of different twists and turns, and has taken him all over the world. However, it is still far from over.

Despite reaching 20 million young people around the world, opening 38,000 libraries, and sponsoring the construction of 2,500 schools, John is not done. There are always more kids out there who don’t have access to the materials they need, and always more communities that can benefit from a partnership with Room to Read.

John has been quite modest about his part in the program and puts its ongoing success down to the great team that has developed over the years.

“It’s a total team sport,” he says. “I’m proud to be a spokesperson for the organization, but I’m one of many, many who have made Room to Read successful. I’m so proud of all the people who have gotten involved.. People with big hearts but even bigger brains.”

If you’re inspired by John’s sudden career shift and his purpose-driven way of life, you can learn more about it in John’s book, Purpose, Incorporated: Turning Cause Into Your Competitive Advantage. The book may already be inspiring more people across the world to make a real difference, even if that means uprooting their lives and everything they know.