John J. Wood is the Founder of Room to Read, a global non-profit organization focused on literacy and gender equality in education and a former Microsoft Executive.

Quality Education and Gender Equality

Wood co-founded Room to Read in 2001 with Dinesh Shrestha and Erin Ganju. 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. Room to Read has over 37,000 partner schools, opened over 18,000 libraries filled with 26 million books, and published over 1,582 original new local-language children's book titles with local authors and artists. There are over 14.3 million children benefited from its literacy program.