Business Skills Help a Founder Expand His Literacy Group
February 27, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
A former Microsoft executive who started a charity nine years ago to get books to the developing world is applying his business expertise to his philanthropy, reports The Financial Times.
Since 1998, John Wood’s Room to Read has opened 3,300 libraries in developing countries and has set a goal of opening an average of 30 libraries each week in years to come, the paper reports.
Mr. Wood, who has a new book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, is critical of the charity world’s ability to show results for its good intentions. He tells the Times he wants to employ “the compassion of Mother Teresa” with “the focus and tenacity of a blue-chip company like a GE or a Cisco” at Room to Read.
Read Mr. Wood’s account of his transition into charitable work in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
(A paid subscription is required to view the Chronicle article.)
