Management Team

John Wood
Founder and Board Chair of Room to Read

John is the founder and board chair of Room to Read. He started Room to Read after a fast-paced and distinguished career with Microsoft from 1991 to 1999. He was in charge of marketing and business development teams throughout Asia, including Director of Business Development for the Greater China region and as Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific region. John brings to Room to Read a vision for a scalable solution to developing world educational problems, an intense focus on results, and an ability to attract a world-class group of employees, volunteers, and investors. John focuses on long-term strategy, capital acquisition, public speaking, and media.

John was selected as the second recipient of the Draper Richards Fellowship, has been chosen for the Skoll Foundation award for social entrepreneurship, and has led Room to Read to three consecutive selections for the prestigious "Social Capitalist" by Fast Company magazine and the Monitor Group. In 2004, he was named as one of Time Magazine's "Asian Heroes" - the only non-Asian ever selected to receive this award. He is also the author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (Harper Collins; September, 2006).

John is an active public speaker, especially to business audiences, on the subjects of corporate social responsibility and building a world-class non-profit organization. His work has been profiled by Bloomberg Television, CNBC, CNN, Fast Company, Newsweek, The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and USA Today. John holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Colorado.

Erin Ganju

Co-founder and CEO

Erin has been with Room to Read since 2001 and has led the collaborative effort with our in-country teams to design Room to Read's programs and launch new Room to Read countries. She currently manages all day to day operations for the organization, overseeing the Programs, Development, Finance and Human Resource departments. Erin is an experienced international business development professional having worked most recently as Vice President, Business Development for Dejima, Inc. Erin's previous professional experience also includes having worked for two large, multinational companies: Unilever N.V. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. She has spent extensive time working overseas, particularly in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. Erin holds combined bachelor's and master's degrees in international relations and economics from Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

Joanne T. Chou
Chief Financial Officer

Joanne joins Room to Read with over twenty years of experience in banking and international trade, real estate and corporate finance, investment management, and marketing strategy. During her career, she has arranged and structured more than $8 billion in secured and unsecured debt for real estate acquisitions and development, project and equipment financings, and corporate and general purposes. Prior to joining Room to Read, she was managing director of finance at MacFarlane Partners, a private real estate investment manager in San Francisco, where she was responsible for, among other things, obtaining financing for the firm's affordable housing investments. Other previous positions were with Barclays Global Investors' global index and markets group in San Francisco, Bank of America's international wholesale banking unit in Hong Kong, and The Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan's U.S. corporate banking unit in Los Angeles. Joanne is a member of the State Bar of California and the Financial Women's Association. She also serves on the board of directors of San Francisco Beautiful, a non-profit organization that works to protect San Francisco's urban environment. She holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley; a JD from the University of California, Los Angeles; and bachelor's degrees in history and biological sciences from Stanford University.

Lisa Hogen
Chief Development Officer

Lisa has 15 years of direct fundraising experience working for local and international non-profits. As Chief Development Officer at Room to Read, Lisa oversees raising the $30MM annual fundraising goal, along with managing our marketing and PR efforts. This includes oversight of 23 staff across 6 offices located throughout the world including Hong Kong, London, Tokyo and New Delhi. Prior to Room to Read, she was the Director of Development for The Food Project, a Boston-based non-profit focused on youth development through sustainable agriculture. Lisa also worked for six years as a Major Gifts Officer for The Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific Program where she was responsible for raising funds to support the Conservancy's efforts to protect rainforests and coral reefs. Lisa holds a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and economics from Tufts University.

Dr. Cory Heyman
Strategic Advisor

Dr. Cory Heyman joins the executive team of Room to Read as strategic advisor supporting the organization’s Girls’ Education program and monitoring and evaluation units. Cory has acted as a close advisor to Room to Read since 2004 when he assisted in developing the organization’s first monitoring and evaluation study. He has also been an active member of its advisory board since 2008. Cory brings with him extensive experience in international development and education, having recently served as the vice president and deputy director of the Academy for Educational Development’s Center for Gender Equity. Cory has worked at the nexus of public, private, and non-profit sectors for nearly two decades and brings with him great experience in managing large-scale educational projects in the United States, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Dhir Jhingran
Chief Program Officer

With over 18 years of professional experience with primary education, Dhir served as Room to Read’s Regional Director for Asia until December 2009 and was responsible for overseeing seven Room to Read country operations. Before working with Room to Read, Dhir served as Director of elementary education for the Ministry of Human Resource Development in India, where he was responsible for guiding the Education For All (EFA) program, a national campaign to universalize elementary education in the country. Dhir previously held the positions of Mission Director for EFA in the State of Assam and National Program Manager for the United Nation's International Primary Education Program. Dhir is a skilled manager of organizational and strategic operations, and has conceptualized and supervised programs in such areas as curriculum revision, teacher professional development, reading and literacy, and classroom construction. He has researched extensively on issues relating to the education of children from disadvantaged communities and language-in-education. He is also the author of two books that are based on empirical research. Dhir holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering; a master's degree in economics; and a post graduate diploma in management.

Lori McLeese
Chief People Officer

Lori joins Room to Read with over fifteen years of educational, instructional design, marketing, and Human Resources experience. Most recently, she worked in corporate Human Resources at Mervyns, a west coast retailer. Prior to that she held positions at United Business Media, Oracle, and the San Francisco Unified School District. In addition, she taught in private schools in Kuwait, Egypt, and South Korea. Lori's primary responsibilities are recruitment, training, motivation and retention of great people around the globe, in addition to day-to-day HR responsibilities. Lori was awarded her master's degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of San Francisco and her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Academic Society.

Steven W. Zimmerman
Chief of Operations

Steven is an acknowledged leader in the international not-for-profit operations and program management field. He has held senior and executive-level positions with a number of international development organizations, including Save the Children, AFS Intercultural, and most recently, Mercy Corps. An accountant and economist by training, he has directly managed numerous financial and administrative functions, including financial planning, budget and budget control, grants management and compliance, human resources administration, and staff development/performance management. Steven also has extensive experience in program design, proposal development, project management, and monitoring and evaluation. His past positions have required a significant level of external representation as well as negotiation with donors, host governments and partner organizations. Over the past twenty-five years, Steven has served in more than a dozen long-term overseas positions, including most recently in Mongolia and China. Steven received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California, and has studied at the Universite de Tunis in Tunisia and the Universite de Grenoble in France.