Ambassador Wood was the US Ambassador to Colombia from 2003 to 2007, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Acting Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, with responsibility for all aspects of U.S. foreign policy at the United Nations and a number of other multilateral organizations from 1998 to 2002.

Immediately before that assignment, Mr. Wood was Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where he was the chief U.S. negotiator in the Security Council.

Ambassador Wood has received the Department of State's meritorious and superior honor awards on repeated occasions.

In 1998 he received the James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence for his work at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

After graduating from Regis High School in New York City in 1968, Wood received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Bucknell University in 1973 and a Master of Business Administration degree, with a specialization in international finance, from the George Washington University in 1975.