Elizabeth Hensick Wood
Senior Director, Publishing and Innovation at Worldreader- Claim this Profile
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Spanish Professional working proficiency
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French Professional working proficiency
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German Limited working proficiency
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Bio
Dani Zacarias
At Worldreader I had both the pleasure of reporting to Elizabeth and then working alongside her as a peer on the senior management team. She is a leader, manager and team player of the highest caliber. During her tenure I saw her bring imagination, passion and follow through to every key partnership she sourced, developed and closed, nearly all of which exponentially increased Worldreader's impact. She has a growth mindset that allows her to simplify complex problems to enable forward motion and an uncanny knack for being able to understand the very complicated and very new very quickly. As a manager she is inspirational: she gets to know her team well, resolves conflict artfully and seems to know just went to empower and when to manage closely. There are few people I would say this about but Elizabeth is undoubtedly one of them: there is nothing she cannot do and whatever she does her passion and excitement will inspire everyone else to come along with her.
Bhanu Potta
I had the opportunity to collaborate with Elizabeth in various capacities since 2010. I have admired her ability to see ahead, and also stay focussed on the short term. Elizabeth is leader with vivid vision, clear strategy and capacity bring people around to assist in realizing the vision. Her ability to assign ownership to team members and coax the most out of them while allowing them to explore the boundaries of conventional practices is her biggest strength. While maintaining an impressive professional consistency within high profile partner ecosystems across a range of industries, Elizabeth has a passion for developing dynamic and creative relationships that bring out the best not only in the products and services she has been involved with, but also in the ongoing conversation so vital in collaboration for social impact. There are some people I hope will continue to be part of my work life for a long time. Elizabeth is one of them. With an affable nature and leadership capacities, she is true C-Level material and will be an asset to any organization.
Dani Zacarias
At Worldreader I had both the pleasure of reporting to Elizabeth and then working alongside her as a peer on the senior management team. She is a leader, manager and team player of the highest caliber. During her tenure I saw her bring imagination, passion and follow through to every key partnership she sourced, developed and closed, nearly all of which exponentially increased Worldreader's impact. She has a growth mindset that allows her to simplify complex problems to enable forward motion and an uncanny knack for being able to understand the very complicated and very new very quickly. As a manager she is inspirational: she gets to know her team well, resolves conflict artfully and seems to know just went to empower and when to manage closely. There are few people I would say this about but Elizabeth is undoubtedly one of them: there is nothing she cannot do and whatever she does her passion and excitement will inspire everyone else to come along with her.
Bhanu Potta
I had the opportunity to collaborate with Elizabeth in various capacities since 2010. I have admired her ability to see ahead, and also stay focussed on the short term. Elizabeth is leader with vivid vision, clear strategy and capacity bring people around to assist in realizing the vision. Her ability to assign ownership to team members and coax the most out of them while allowing them to explore the boundaries of conventional practices is her biggest strength. While maintaining an impressive professional consistency within high profile partner ecosystems across a range of industries, Elizabeth has a passion for developing dynamic and creative relationships that bring out the best not only in the products and services she has been involved with, but also in the ongoing conversation so vital in collaboration for social impact. There are some people I hope will continue to be part of my work life for a long time. Elizabeth is one of them. With an affable nature and leadership capacities, she is true C-Level material and will be an asset to any organization.
Dani Zacarias
At Worldreader I had both the pleasure of reporting to Elizabeth and then working alongside her as a peer on the senior management team. She is a leader, manager and team player of the highest caliber. During her tenure I saw her bring imagination, passion and follow through to every key partnership she sourced, developed and closed, nearly all of which exponentially increased Worldreader's impact. She has a growth mindset that allows her to simplify complex problems to enable forward motion and an uncanny knack for being able to understand the very complicated and very new very quickly. As a manager she is inspirational: she gets to know her team well, resolves conflict artfully and seems to know just went to empower and when to manage closely. There are few people I would say this about but Elizabeth is undoubtedly one of them: there is nothing she cannot do and whatever she does her passion and excitement will inspire everyone else to come along with her.
Bhanu Potta
I had the opportunity to collaborate with Elizabeth in various capacities since 2010. I have admired her ability to see ahead, and also stay focussed on the short term. Elizabeth is leader with vivid vision, clear strategy and capacity bring people around to assist in realizing the vision. Her ability to assign ownership to team members and coax the most out of them while allowing them to explore the boundaries of conventional practices is her biggest strength. While maintaining an impressive professional consistency within high profile partner ecosystems across a range of industries, Elizabeth has a passion for developing dynamic and creative relationships that bring out the best not only in the products and services she has been involved with, but also in the ongoing conversation so vital in collaboration for social impact. There are some people I hope will continue to be part of my work life for a long time. Elizabeth is one of them. With an affable nature and leadership capacities, she is true C-Level material and will be an asset to any organization.
Dani Zacarias
At Worldreader I had both the pleasure of reporting to Elizabeth and then working alongside her as a peer on the senior management team. She is a leader, manager and team player of the highest caliber. During her tenure I saw her bring imagination, passion and follow through to every key partnership she sourced, developed and closed, nearly all of which exponentially increased Worldreader's impact. She has a growth mindset that allows her to simplify complex problems to enable forward motion and an uncanny knack for being able to understand the very complicated and very new very quickly. As a manager she is inspirational: she gets to know her team well, resolves conflict artfully and seems to know just went to empower and when to manage closely. There are few people I would say this about but Elizabeth is undoubtedly one of them: there is nothing she cannot do and whatever she does her passion and excitement will inspire everyone else to come along with her.
Bhanu Potta
I had the opportunity to collaborate with Elizabeth in various capacities since 2010. I have admired her ability to see ahead, and also stay focussed on the short term. Elizabeth is leader with vivid vision, clear strategy and capacity bring people around to assist in realizing the vision. Her ability to assign ownership to team members and coax the most out of them while allowing them to explore the boundaries of conventional practices is her biggest strength. While maintaining an impressive professional consistency within high profile partner ecosystems across a range of industries, Elizabeth has a passion for developing dynamic and creative relationships that bring out the best not only in the products and services she has been involved with, but also in the ongoing conversation so vital in collaboration for social impact. There are some people I hope will continue to be part of my work life for a long time. Elizabeth is one of them. With an affable nature and leadership capacities, she is true C-Level material and will be an asset to any organization.
Experience
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Worldreader
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United States
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Non-profit Organizations
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1 - 100 Employee
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Senior Director, Publishing and Innovation
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Aug 2019 - Present
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Member of the Board
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Aug 2016 - Present
Using mobile phones and e-readers, Worldreader is providing millions of people across the developing world free access to an enormous digital library, giving them an opportunity to learn to read, become fully literate and change their lives. Worldreader was recognized by Fast Company as one of the top 10 most innovative non profit companies of 2016.
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Amazon
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United States
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Software Development
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Relationship Manager, Books
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Jan 2017 - Aug 2019
Business development for Amazon Books, responsible for working with literary agents, authors, and publishers to build onsite selection and drive author success through participation in Amazon’s programs and services. Business development for Amazon Books, responsible for working with literary agents, authors, and publishers to build onsite selection and drive author success through participation in Amazon’s programs and services.
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Worldreader
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United States
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Non-profit Organizations
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1 - 100 Employee
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Managing Director, Europe
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2014 - 2016
Second in command under CEO. Led cross-functional team of 23 people. Key achievements include• Led Product Team to design and develop portfolio of award-winning mobile applications used by over 3 million monthly users across Africa, Asia and Latin America • Won GMSA Global Mobile Award for Best Mobile Innovation in Education and two MEFFY Awards for Innovation and Social Responsibility in 2016• Managed internal and external technical teams to build both back-end content management system and front-end mobile applications• Forged and managed key strategic partnership with Opera Software to distribute Worldreader mobile app to 20+ million Opera users across 12 African countries• Partnered with Facebook/Internet.Org to secure zero-rated access to books for millions of users• Secured funding from Mozilla and worked with Mozilla technical team to build web application designed for Firefox phones in emerging markets• Secured OEM partnerships with Samsung in Nigeria and ZTE in Liberia• Forged partnership with Orange in Cameroon for OEM and national joint literacy campaign• Secured and managed long-term strategic partnership with Microsoft• Partnered with Cellcom in Liberia to spread critical information about Ebola using mobile phones• Led Education Team to develop, launch and manage innovative pilots to use mobile phones to promote Early Childhood Education and Development (India pilot) and Gender Equality (Kenya pilot) Show less
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Senior Director of Mobile Platforms and Content
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2010 - 2014
Responsible for building massive free and high quality content library for children and teens across emerging markets and for building a new mobile application portfolio aimed at allowing anyone with a mobile phone to read and learn. Key achievements include:• Built digital library from 5 to 20K high quality titles for children and young adults • Spearheaded strategic partnerships with top global publishers and authors• Forged partnerships with dozens of top educational publishers across Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria, introducing digital business model and providing training and capacity building• Led the product development of “Worldreader Classroom Kits” (now called BLUE BOX), a turn- key e-reader based classroom solution that is now used by hundreds of schools and libraries and tens of thousands of children across Sub-Saharan Africa • Developed the strategy and plan to use mobile phones to spread literacy and education to a wider audience, convinced senior management and board, secured funding and key partnerships, built the internal product and technical team to embark on building a portfolio of mobile applications aimed at emerging markets• Led groundbreaking research into Mobile Learning across developing countries culminating in UNESCO published report• Forged and managed partnership with Nokia to build reading applications for Asha feature phones, Windows phones and ultimately web-based application for all phones Show less
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Accenture
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Ireland
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Business Consulting and Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Manager
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1992 - 1994
Manager in the Strategy Group, focused on consumer products and transportation. Manager in the Strategy Group, focused on consumer products and transportation.
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Education
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1992 - 1992
INSEAD
MBA, MBA -
1984 - 1987
University of Florida
BA, Journalism -
1980 - 1983
Vero Beach High School
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