* On 24th July Evening, John Wood will meet the Prime Minister, Mr. Ratnasiri Wicremanayake and distribute 50,000 books for 598 schools in Ampara and Batticaloa Districts.

* On 25th Morning together with the Minister of Education Mr. Susil Premajayantha, he will meet high officials of the Ministry of Education and the Provincial Ministries of Education, who partnered with ‘Room to Read - Sri Lanka’ Programmes

* On 25th Evening, together with Minister of Education Mr. Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Child Development and Women’s Empowerment, Mrs. Sumedha Jayasena, Member of Parliament and Senior Advisor to the President Mr. Basil Rajapakse, he will inaugurate the ‘Global Country Management Conference’ of Room to Read.

This press release is in commemoration of these events.

One of the World Renowned Philanthropists, who left a very high position at Microsoft and started the non-profit organization named ‘Room to Read’ is visiting Sri Lanka for a short period.

At age 35, John Wood left an executive career track at Microsoft Corporation to form Room to ad, a non-profit organization that "combines the heart of Mother Theresa with the scalability of Starbucks" to help children across the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the power of education. Razor-sharp business acumen honed at Microsoft, combined with a passion to change the world makes John Wood a unique, inspiring and popular speaker with universal appeal. John founded Room to Read out of deep concern that nearly one billion people lack basic literacy and that over 200 million children in the developing world are not enrolled in school. "I was blessed with a solid education which was a wonderful foundation for my future. As a result, I had a great career at a company that encourages people to dream big dreams. I started Room to Read as a way to give that same opportunity to children in the world’s poorest places. Education is a hand up, not a hand out. It is within -our power to be the generation that ends poverty, so we need to think big and execute flawlessly."

Since its start in 2000, Room to Read has sponsored the opening of more than 750 schools and multi- lingual libraries across the developing world. The organization has distributed over 5 million children’s books in multiple languages and supports nearly 7,000 girls with long-term scholarships. John describes these results as "total tip of the iceberg" as Room to Read plans to increase this literacy network to 20,000 libraries and schools serving at least 10 million children by the year 2020. The organization currently operates in nine countries in Asia and Africa, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, South Africa and Zambia. In his award-winning memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (Collins, 2006), John tells the story of how he raised over $80 million of financial commitments from a "standing start" to develop one of the fastest-growing non-profits in history. The book was described by Publishers’ Weekly in a starred review as "an infectiously inspiring read."

Translated into 18 languages, it is popular with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, educators, and internationalists alike, and was selected by Amazon.com as one of the Top Ten Business Narratives of 2006 and voted by Hudson Booksellers as a Top Ten Nonfiction title of 2006. The book was also featured during John’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the resulting "Oprah’s Book Drive" with Room to Read raised over $1 million from viewers. Because of the positive response from viewers, the show has re-aired on numerous occasions. This book was translated to Sinhala and Tamil languages by Room to Read Sri Lanka.

Three-time speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative. Five-time winner of the Fast Company Magazine and Monitor Group Social Capitalist Award, Time Magazine’s "Asian Heroes" Award, recognizing "20 People under 40 who have done something brave, bold, or remarkable" (the only non-Asian ever chosen for this honour), selected as a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum (attendee of the WEF in Davos for the last four years), Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, two-time winner of the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Innovation (grants of $200,000 and $1.2 million), second recipient of the Draper Richards Fellowship (America’s largest fellowship for early-stage social entrepreneurs), profiled by the Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS) as one of "America’s Great Leaders".