He replaces John Mellon who plans to step down after six years as an independent non-executive director, from 17 July.
Wood left ITN last month, after eight and a half years at the helm. He brings extensive experience in managing diversified, high profile media companies to the bath-based media group.
He joined ITN from Reuters, where he began as a journalist, before going on to become editor-in-chief from 1989 to 2000.
He was in charge of all Reuters news and television operations worldwide and also served on the Reuters Board. Prior to moving to ITN, he was responsible for Reuters strategic media alliances and investments.
Roger Parry, chairman of Future, said he was "delighted" to welcome Wood and his "outstanding" commercial and the editorial experience to the group.
He added: "All of this experience will be extremely valuable to Future as we move forward with our multi-platform strategy."
In a pre-close trading update for the half-year ending 31 March 2009, Future reported a "challenging" trading environment, exacerbated by an unexpected disruption to distribution of up to 40% of its news-stand magazines in the US, that was expected to lead to an operating loss.
In the UK, the EBITA operating result for the half-year, and central costs, were said to be "in line with the first-half last year", which were £7.2m.
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