Uzoma Orchingwa

About Uzoma Orchingwa

Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa is a Nigerian-American technologist, entrepreneur, and the Co-founder and CEO of Emerge Career, an AI-powered workforce development and reentry company that partners with governments to train and place justice-involved and low-income individuals into high-paying, AI-resilient careers in the skilled trades — including Commercial Truck Driving, HVAC, and Diesel Technology. Emerge Career is venture-backed by Y Combinator, Alexis Ohanian's 776, Pioneer Ventures, SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Michael Seibel, Deborah Quazzo, and other leading investors. Emerge recently partnered with New York City to launch Next Mile NYC, an expansive workforce development program operated with the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice that provides justice-involved and housing-insecure New Yorkers with cost-free, technology-driven vocational training and job placement into high-paying skilled trade careers.

Prior to Emerge Career, Zo was the Co-founder and CEO of Ameelio, a prize-winning nonprofit technology company that builds free technology to disrupt the predatory prison telecom industry and accelerate the creation of a more humane and rehabilitative justice system for the 113 million Americans it impacts. Ameelio now operates in 63 facilities and growing, has surpassed one million users, and is backed by leading technologists including Jack Dorsey, Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, and Brian Acton, as well as foundations such as Mellon and Arnold Ventures.

With the ongoing skilled trades shortage, America's push to reindustrialize, and the mounting impact of AI on white-collar work, Zo and Emerge Career are uniquely positioned to lead the skilled trades revolution.

He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management, and an M.Phil. in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. He is a Gates-Cambridge Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow for New Americans. His recognitions include MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 (2022), Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business (2021), and selection to the inaugural class of Fortune Founders Forum. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and other major outlets.