John Wood

Topics

Presentations

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World
This presentation is John’s first-person account of following his passion, and the lessons learned in doing so. It is a popular “inspiring close” or “bring people to their feet” dinner speech at corporate, industry, and education conferences.

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
This is a speech John first delivered at a Microsoft sales conference. With sales reps facing an increasingly competitive and ever-changing economy, Microsoft’s sales leadership team requested that John speak about “what’s possible when a committed person dares to take risks and leave their comfort zone”.

Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Change
Leadership is a subject on which John lectures at leading business schools, including University of Chicago, Harvard, Kellogg, Wharton and Stanford. In this presentation, John highlights the leadership lessons that can be learned from the front lines of social change. This is an increasingly popular topic amongst corporations, universities, and membership organizations.

Summary Profile

At age 35, John left an executive career track at Microsoft Corporation to form Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that “combines the heartof Mother Theresa with the scalability of Starbucks” to help over one million children across the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the power of education. Razor-sharp business acumen honed at Microsoft, combined with a passion to change the world makes John Wood a unique, inspiring and popular speaker with universal appeal.

John founded Room to Read out of deep concern that nearly one billion people lack basic literacy. “I was blessed with a solid education which was a wonderful foundation for my future. As a result, I had a great career at a company that encourages people to dream big dreams. I started this nonprofit as a way to give that same foundation and opportunity to children in the world’s poorest places.”

Since its start in 2000, Room to Read has sponsored the opening of more than 280 schools and 3,800 multi-lingual libraries across the developing world. The organization has distributed over 3 million children’s books and supports more than 3,400 girls with long-term scholarships. John describes these results as “total tip of the iceberg” as Room to Read plans to increase this literacy network to 20,000 libraries and schools serving at least 10 million children. The organization currently operates in eight countries in Asia and Africa, ranging from Nepal to Sri Lanka to South Africa.

John raised over $25 million of financial commitments from a “standing start” and illustrates this experience in a recent memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (Harper Collins 2006), a book described by Publishers’ Weekly in a starred review as “an infectiously inspiringread.” Translated into 16 languages, it is popular with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, educators, and internationalists alike, selected by Amazon.com Editor Picks as a Top Ten Business Narrative of 2006 and voted by Hudson Booksellers as a Top Ten Nonfiction title of 2006.

During his career at Microsoft, John ran significant parts of the company’s international business divisions, including positions as:

• Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific Division
• Director of Marketing for Microsoft Australia
• Director of Business Development for the Greater China region

John holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. from the University of Colorado.

Honors

• Four-time winner of the Fast Company Magazine and Monitor Group Social Capitalist Award
• Time Magazine’s “Asian Heroes” Award, recognizing “20 People under 40 who have done something brave, bold, or remarkable” (the only non-Asian ever chosen for this honor)
• Selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum (attendee of the Davos WEF for the last three years)
• Two-time winner of the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Innovation (grants of $200,000 and $1.2 million)
• Selected as 2007 Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute (one of only 20 leaders chosen for their potential to provide leadership at the highest levels of corporate and civic responsibility)
• Second recipient of the Draper Richards Fellowship (America’s largest fellowship for earlystage social entrepreneurs) 
• Profiled by the Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS) as one of “America’s Great Leaders”

Recent Speaking Venues

• Clinton Global Initiative – September 2007 (New York, New York)
• Innovators at Google – October 2007 (Mountain View, California)
• The Power Within – October 2007 (Calgary and London, Canada)
• Reading First (U.S. Department of Education) – July 2007 (St. Louis, Missouri)
• Enterprise Software Conference, Sand Hill Group – July 2007 (Pebble Beach, California)

Other Notable Speaking Venues

• The Power Within – September 2006 (Toronto, Canada)
• Starbucks Corporate Marketing Conference – September 2006 (Seattle, Washington)
• Microsoft Education Summit Conference – September 2006 (Seattle, Washington)
• Professional Businesswomen of California – November 2006 (Sacramento, California)
• Council on Foreign Relations – November 2006 (Washington, D.C.)

Responses to John’s Speeches
“John spoke at our 500-person Starbucks marketing conference and was an amazing inspiration to our global team. Here is someone who is literally changing the world, and he invites you to participate! He does so with humor, energy, and no guilt. If you want to hear a story that will end with a standing ovation, invite John to speak (and then donate to his organization)!" – Anne Saunders, Senior Vice President, Starbucks Coffee Company

“John is a breath of fresh air to executives and professionals who are typically caught up in their busy lives. He connects with people’s natural desire to do good for society. John was a big hit at our Software 2004 conference, where he received a standing ovation (the only one in the history of the conference) from over 1,000 CEO’s, VP’s, and venture capitalists. He is an engaging speaker who isguaranteed to make people passionate about life.” – MR Rangaswami, Founder and CEO, Sand Hill Group

MOST REQUESTED TOPIC:
A Passion to Change the World Through the Power of Education; Leaving Microsoft to Change the World