Jake Wood

Biography

Jake Wood is cofounder and CEO of Team Rubicon, the only nonprofit disaster response organization that utilizes the skills of military veterans to rapidly deploy emergency response teams. In giving veterans an opportunity to continue their service, Team Rubicon provides them with a sense of purpose, community and identity. Since the organization’s founding in 2010 following the massive Haiti earthquake, Team Rubicon has responded to over 200 disasters and grown from eight to 50,000 volunteer members. Under Wood’s leadership, the organization has responded following the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, Hurricane Sandy, the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the 2014 wildfire in Pateros, Washington, and the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal.
As a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, Wood deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a Scout Sniper and earned the Navy-Marine Commendation Medal. A leading veterans’ advocate, Wood has briefed President Obama on veterans’ issues, met with former Presidents Bush and Clinton on veteran transition and disaster response and testified before a Senate committee to improve mental health care services for returning veterans. He has also appeared in the major media, including MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, Al Jazeera, US News & World Report, Forbes, Fox News and penned an op-ed for The New York Times. In 2014, Crown Publishing published Wood’s book, Take Command: Lessons in Leadership.
Wood has received numerous awards including: Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “40 Under Forty”; Goldman Sachs “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” award; and was selected as a CNN Hero in 2012.