vailsymposium

John Wood is the Founder and CEO of U-GO. Prior to U-GO, he was Microsoft’s Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific region and the Director of Business Development for Greater China. Wood left Microsoft in 1999 to found Room to Read, where he was the founding CEO and later Board Chair, leading the teams that raised over $750 million in philanthropic capital and bringing their award-winning education programs to more than 30 million children in 20 low-income countries.

Wood has five published books, including “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” (described by Publisher’s Weekly as “an infectiously inspiring read”) and the children’s classic “Zak the Yak with Books on His Back.”  The former was named a Top ten book of the year by both Amazon and Hudson’s Booksellers. Translated into 20 languages, the book was featured in hundreds of outlets including Bloomberg, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show to announce “Oprah’s Book Drive” for Room to Read raised more than $3 million.

Wood has been named by Goldman Sachs as one of the world’s 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. At the invitation of Bill Clinton, he served three terms on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative. Wood was named an “Asian Hero” by Time magazine and is a five-time winner of Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Award. He was selected by the World Economic Forum for its inaugural class of Young Global Leaders. The Tribeca Film Festival made him a Lifetime Achievement Honoree. Wood is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and was twice selected by Barron’s as one of the “25 Best Givers.” In 2014, Queen Silvia of Sweden awarded Wood with the World’s Children’s Prize, also called the Children’s Nobel Prize.

Wood holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado and has received four honorary Ph.D.s. He is a founding Advisory Board member for both Asia Partners — a $1 billion Singapore-based private equity fund focused on emerging technology firms — and XA Network, the leading Southeast Asian angel investing platform. He is the Asia Partner for FIC Concentric Equity, a $2.5 billion Chicago-based private equity fund for whom he co-leads Asian investment strategy. Wood previously served on the Board of Directors for Net Impact and One Acre Fund and is currently on the Advisory Boards of New Story and Flight School.