READ to RISE was founded in September 2013 by husband and wife team, Athol Williams and Taryn Lock.

Both Athol and Taryn are passionate about literacy, education and helping others.

Athol grew up in Westridge, Mitchells Plain (Cape Town, South Africa), so is very aware of the challenges that children face. Today, Athol is a businessman, philosopher and poet and attributes his success to reading and education. He holds degrees from some of the top universities in the world - MIT, London Business School and Harvard University. He is currently studying Political Theory at Oxford University. Athol has a personal library of 10,000 books and is a firm believer in the power and magic of reading.  He is the living example of reading to rise. 

Taryn was born and raised in Johannesburg (South Africa). She has an honours degree in Mathematics from WITS University and has worked in financial services many years as a strategy analyst. While Taryn was on sabbatical in Boston in 2012/2013, she tutored English to foreign students, and this was a life changing moment for her - working directly with individuals and helping them to read and speak English. When coming back to SA, she felt that she needed to do more - illiteracy is a huge problem in SA. Passionate about literacy and wanting to make a real difference in SA, Taryn quit her corporate job to start up READ to RISE with Athol. Taryn is the Executive Director of READ to RISE. She was one of Mail & Guardian's Top 200 Young South Africans in 2014 for her work in civil society through READ to RISE. She is also a 2018 Obama African Leader