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John J. Wood is the founder and board co-chair of Room to Read, a global nonprofit organization focused on literacy and gender equality in education in Asia and Africa. 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. 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. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado, and... MORE

John J. Wood is the founder and board co-chair of Room to Read, a global nonprofit organization focused on literacy and gender equality in education in Asia and Africa. 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. 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. 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, including stints in Australia and China. Wood took a vacation from his work at Microsoft in 1998 to trek through the Himalayas. 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. Upon seeing Wood's reaction to the lack of books, the school’s headmaster LESS