JOHN WOOD
Founder and Board Chair, Room to Read
John Wood left Microsoft at age 35 to form Room to Read, a nonprofit 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. In ten years, the organization has established more than
1,100 schools and 10,000 multilingual libraries in nine countries, impacting the lives of more than four million
children in the developing world. Mr. Wood was selected as the second recipient of the Draper Richards
Fellowship, and is a three-time winner of the Skoll Foundation’s award for social entrepreneurship. In 2009,
he was ranked among the Top 25 Givers list, which identified those organizations that made the best use of
funds. Mr. Wood is the author of the book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (2006), which was endorsed
by President Clinton and featured on Oprah. He released his first children’s book, Zak the Yak with Books on His
Back, last month.
ERIC WOOTEN
COO and Co-founder, UkuMi
Eric Wooten is the COO and co-founder of UkuMi, based in Austin, Texas. UkuMi revolutionizes digital
advertising by blending its highly engaging social apps with its patent-pending “trust-based” display
advertising platform, which has leapfrogged industry standard display advertising engagement and CTR
performance. UkuMi works exclusively with Fortune 100 brands, top retailers, and the largest digital agencies
to deliver meaningful campaign messages to content publishers, social networks, and media companies,
helping them to monetize more effectively. Before founding UkuMi, Mr. Wooten was responsible for the
design and global deployment of Dell Consumer’s cutting-edge eSupport/Knowledge Management system
and Dell Commercial’s customer-facing Collaboration/CMS platform. Mr. Wooten holds two patents pending
for his disruptive advertising platform design at UkuMi and three patents pending for his groundbreaking
knowledge-management work at Dell. Mr. Wooten earned a BS degree from East Tennessee State University.
GEOFF Y. YANG
Managing Director, Redpoint Ventures
Geoff Yang is a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, a $2 billion family of early-stage venture capital funds.
Previously, he was a general partner with Institutional Venture Partners, a firm he joined in 1987. Mr. Yang
served as founding investor in many consumer media and infrastructure startups. His media investments
include Ask Jeeves, Excite, MySpace, TiVo, Gaia Online, Gravity, and Clicker. His networking investments include
BigBand, Calix, Foundry, Juniper, MMC Networks, and Wellfleet. Mr. Yang was formerly director of the National
Venture Capital Association and director and president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists.
He also served on the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. Mr. Yang holds a BSE in
engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
ALEX YODER
Chief Executive Officer, Webtrends
Alex Yoder, CEO at Webtrends, is responsible for worldwide operations and the company’s strategic vision.
Before his appointment as CEO, Mr. Yoder served Webtrends for the past seven years in key management
positions, with his last role as vice president of sales, North America. During his tenure, he has expanded the
brand and delivered business value to global enterprises. His career at Webtrends tops off more than 20 years
of global business experience spanning leadership roles across sales, marketing, and operations. He also served
as vice president of sales for Touch Clarity, a behavioral targeting company. Mr. Yoder holds a BA degree in
English literature from Whitman College.
