Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy

What's happened since John Wood left Microsoft to change the world? Just ask six million kids in the poorest regions of Asia and Africa. In 1999, at the age of thirty-five, Wood quit a lucrative career to found the nonprofit Room to Read. Described by the "San Francisco Chronicle" as "the Andrew Carnegie of the developing world," he strived to bring the lessons of the corporate world to the nonprofit sector - and succeeded spectacularly. In his acclaimed first book, "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World", Wood explained his vision and the story of his start-up. Now, he tackles the organization's next steps and its latest challenges - from managing expansion to raising money in a collapsing economy to publishing books for children who literally have no books in their native language. At its heart, "Creating Room to Read" shares moving stories of the people. Room to Read works to help: impoverished children whose schools and villages have been swept away by war or natural disaster and girls whose educations would otherwise be ignored. People at the highest levels of finance, government, and philanthropy will embrace the opportunity to learn Wood's inspiring business model and blueprint for doing good. And general readers will love "Creating Room to Read" for its spellbinding story of one man's mission to put books within every child's reach.

About the Author :
John Wood worked for Microsoft for nine years and ran significant parts of the company's international business before quitting at age 35 to found the award-winning non-profit, Room to Read. Since its founding, Wood and Room to Read have established over 4,000 libraries, donated or published over 4 million books, built more than 400 schools, and funded nearly 4,000 longterm girls' scholarships--impacting the lives of more than one million children worldwide. The organization plans to expand to at least 20,000 libraries and schools by the year 2020. John strives to bring the lessons of the corporate world to the non-profit sector. he has been described by Fast Company magazine as "all heart, all business," and by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the Andrew Carnegie of the developing world." He has been selected as a "Young Global leader" by the World Economic Forum, is a recipient of the Draper Richards fellowship for social entrpreneurs and two Skoll Foundation awards for social entrepreneurship, and was selected by Time Magazine as one of its Asian Heroes. he is also a Henry Crown fellow of the Aspen Institute.