Ameelio

Growing up in Nigeria, Zo saw firsthand the coexistence of poverty and wealth. Reflecting on his upbringing, he recalls wrestling with the role that chance played in his life. He happened to be born to parents who, despite being raised in villages, were able to prioritize higher education as a means to a better life while neighbors and family members struggled with poverty. Witnessing this inspired Zo to seek solutions for those who have been disadvantaged not through their actions but rather through the random lottery of the conditions of their birth.

After moving to the United States, Zo’s pursuit came into focus in high school as he saw friends, many of them African-American, enter the prison system. Through college and a Masters at Cambridge, he sought to understand why so many Americans were affected by mass incarceration. While studying Criminology focused on sentencing reduction, prosecutorial reform, and more, Zo realized that very few solutions were directed at what he saw as the root cause of the problem: poverty.

The inspiration for Ameelio was thus not a single moment but rather two decades of lived experience combined with a deep commitment of service to others. What Zo has created in Ameelio is not only a breakthrough in technology but also in compassion. The progress Zo is enabling through technology is uniquely remarkable simply because he’s the first to leverage it in this way. His work is a powerful testament to the ability of brilliant and intentional humans to make meaningful impact in the lives of those whose barriers may seem insurmountable.