Jelani Sutherland
Jelani is a mission-driven entrepreneur, fintech operator, and former U.S. Air Force combat veteran with over 15 years of high-stakes leadership experience across military, aviation, and financial services. After commanding flight operations as a commercial airline captain, he transitioned into fintech to build a scalable lending platform to solve one of Africa’s most pressing problems: access to affordable credit.
Under his leadership, Xodus became a licensed financial institution, and raised institutional capital to scale lending in one of Africa’s most underserved markets. Jelani and his team has led high-level engagements with regulators, global investors, and technology providers, while building a local team to execute in the field.
Jelani brings a unique blend of frontline execution, regulatory engagement, and investor alignment—built on firsthand experience running a mobile money agent business and deep work with community stakeholders, telco partners, and the central bank. His experience spans everything from capital structuring and FX risk to grassroots agent operations. Jelani brings uncommon discipline, deep market insight, and a relentless commitment to inclusive finance — transforming how capital reaches the last mile across Africa.
He is also the founder of The Xodus Africa Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit supporting financial inclusion across the continent.