John Wood

John Wood is the founder of Room to Read, one of the most impactful global education nonprofits ever created, which has benefited over 45 million children across Asia and Africa. A former Microsoft executive, he walked away from a lucrative career to pursue a mission that has fundamentally changed how the world approaches education in the developing world.

From Microsoft to a Mission That Changed Millions of Lives

At age 35, while on a trekking vacation in Nepal, Wood visited a rural school with an empty library and made a promise to return with books. That promise grew into Room to Read, which has established over 50,000 libraries, published more than 3,000 original children’s book titles in local languages, and supported the education of millions of girls through secondary school. Under Wood’s leadership, Room to Read became a model for scalable, sustainable, results-driven philanthropy.

A New Model for Purpose-Driven Leadership

Wood is the bestselling author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, which chronicles his transformation from corporate executive to global education leader. He has been recognized by Goldman Sachs, the Skoll Foundation, and Time magazine for his impact on global literacy. His keynotes inspire leaders to think beyond conventional success, showing how entrepreneurial principles can be applied to solve the world’s most pressing problems and how anyone can find their own path to meaningful impact.

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Wood first delivered this speech at a Microsoft sales conference. With sales reps facing an increasingly competitive and ever-changing economy, Microsoft’s sales leadership team requested that Wood speak about “what’s possible when a committed person dares to take risks and leave their comfort zone.” At the conclusion of the talk, Woods will lead audience members through a short exercise with a big impact. As a result, hundreds will leave the room with a commitment to breaking old habits, innovating, and taking risks in a way that will drive progress in their teams, their divisions, and their company.

Re-Imagining Leadership

Eager to implement his own vision at age 35, John Wood left an executive career track at Microsoft to build a new kind of non-profit – one founded on the principles of ROI maximization, massive scalability and absolute uncompromis-ing transparency. The result is one of the fastest-growing non-profits in history.

Now, Wood teaches managerial courage in classrooms and business conferences around the globe. Speaking to MBA students and executives alike, he inspires audiences to think differently and more boldly about what they can accomplish as leaders. He insists that audacious goals attract audacious people, and that when they work together in an organization that inspires and recognizes innovation, there are no problems they can’t solve.

Scaling Success

In this presentation, Wood shares his model for massively scalable growth with business, university, and non-profit audiences around the world. His experience has made him an authority on overcoming the obstacles of culture, language, geography, and technology. Wood’s insights on the promises and pitfalls of rapid expansion – gleaned through experience, intuition, and trial and error – are sought by leaders everywhere. Key points in this talk include bold goals attract bold people, the war for talent, and doing more with less.