John Wood was born in the United States in 1964. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado, and a master in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
From 1991 to 1999, Wood worked for Microsoft as the Director of Marketing for Australia, Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific region and Director of Business Development for Greater China.
Following a visit to Nepal in 1998, Wood left Microsoft to launch Books for Nepal, an organization which donated books to school children and eventually became Room to Read. Now headquartered in San Francisco, California, the non-profit organization works to develop literacy skills and the habit of reading among primary school children in communities in ten countries in Asia and Africa.
Wood delivered the Beatty Lecture on September 24, 2015, titled "Whose Version of the Future is Going to Win?"
Image: Owen Egan
