Ex-Microsoft exec spreads the words with books for poor
Goal is 10 million volumes for libraries across Third World
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
October 16, 2006
BOULDER - John Wood earned plenty of money and saw plenty of the world's richest and poorest people by the time he was 35.
As a Microsoft executive, the 1986 University of Colorado graduate traveled the Pacific Rim - its glitzy capitals and its downtrodden villages - for the world's largest software company.
"I noticed this incredible gulf between the opportunities we take for granted in the First World and the utter lack of opportunities for kids in the Third World," he said.
To Wood, that gulf started with books - the dozens of books a middle-class kid reads in the United States before age 10, compared with the scarcity of books in many of the world's villages.
"It's inherently unfair to live in a world with this much abundance where there are 1 billion people in the world who lack basic literacy," he said.
So Wood took the lessons of Microsoft - think big, double your size every year - and left the corporate world for the philanthropic world.
"The question was how to create a long-term systemic change," he said. "The answer to me was to get education right, to give kids a better possibility to become self-sufficient."
His goal is to put 10 million books into nascent libraries in Third World villages and schools.
His foundation, Room to Read, started with one library in a school for 450 students in Nepal.
That was just the beginning.
"At Microsoft, the saying was 'Go bigger or go home,' " he said. "I decided we really need to go big on this."
Now, Room to Read publishes its own books in the local languages of villages in Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia, India, South Africa and elsewhere.
The organization also builds schools and libraries, computer labs and language labs.
The books don't contain political ideology or anything about condoms or avoiding HIV or religious animosities.
"It's simple things," he said. "ABCs, one-two-three books about animals, moral lessons. But nothing heavy-handed."
This year, 75 new titles will be published, and next year 100 new ones. By the end of the year, 2 million Room to Read books will be in Third World libraries.
Despite his years at Microsoft, Wood is skeptical about electronics and computers solving the Third World's problems.
"Most of these places lack electricity or a phone grid," he said. "Throwing computers at the problem doesn't help.
"Once kids gain basic literacy, they're on their way. Ninety percent of this is low-tech."
Wood worked at Microsoft for nine years.
"I learned a lot about thinking big, about global organization and management," he said. "I was there at the right time.
"But then I said, 'OK, I'm 35. I can go the rest of my life toward making rich people richer. Or I can devote my life to helping the poor get educated.' "
His Microsoft experience opens a lot of doors in his fundraising role, he said.
"I get meetings with people who otherwise wouldn't take meetings," he said.
"The human brain is the most amazing thing ever designed," Wood said. "Get a kid at a young age looking at a book . . . they become lifelong learners. The hope is that if they continue to read for a lifetime, they become aware of the possibility of self-sufficiency and break the cycle of poverty."
Wood credits his CU undergraduate years with opening his eyes to the world at large.
"I was meeting students from China, Venezuela, reading The Economist. I had professors at the business school with a global view of the world. I traveled overseas on summer holidays. The world grew for me."
Wood was in Denver and Boulder this weekend to promote his new book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and to attend the CU-Texas Tech football game.
He encourages students to help with fundraising for his efforts by having read-a-thons, bake sales or other events.
Room to Read
• For information, go to www.room toread.org, or call 415-561-3331.
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