Jelani Ellington, PhD
Operator, scholar-practitioner, and trade association executive. The career that put him on both sides of the negotiation table is the career that produced this book.
Currently
Chief Operating Officer
Commercial Construction Trade Association
300+ member firms
Principal
Innovatus
Fractional executive services, management consulting, and AI adoption training
Adjunct Associate Professor
University of Maryland
Organizational design and strategic management
Dr. Jelani Ellington has spent his career working both sides of the negotiation table.
For the first chapter of his career, he held executive roles with profit and loss responsibility up to $11 billion across five Fortune 50 companies - Elevance Health, Capital One, Walmart, General Motors, and Ford. He led businesses, restructured operations, and negotiated commercial deals as the larger party at the table, with the analyst teams, in-house counsel, and procurement infrastructure that come with operating at that scale.
He now serves as Chief Operating Officer of a 135-year-old commercial construction trade association representing more than 300 member companies, and as principal of Innovatus, a consulting practice that provides fractional executive services, management consulting, executive coaching, and AI adoption training to small and mid-sized firms across the country.
The combination - corporate-scale operating experience and daily proximity to owner-operators who carry personal guarantees and meet payroll every Friday - is the foundation of Outgunned. He has watched, advised, and at times participated in the negotiations small business operators actually face. He has seen what works and what does not. The book is the manual he wished he could hand to every member, every client, and every coaching engagement.
Dr. Ellington holds doctoral and graduate degrees in management, public administration, engineering, innovation, and entrepreneurship from institutions in the United States and Europe. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC). He serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, teaching graduate courses in organizational design and strategic management.
Education & Credentials
- PhD, Management — University of Maryland
- Executive MPA — University of Pennsylvania (Fels Institute)
- MS, Management & Systems Engineering — MIT Sloan
- MS, Innovation & Entrepreneurship — HEC Paris
- MBA — Indiana University, Kelley School of Business
- MS, Business Creation — University of Utah
- BS, Mechanical Engineering — North Carolina A&T State University
- Lean Six Sigma — Master Black Belt
- ICF Professional Certified Coach — PCC
- Adjunct Associate Professor — University of Maryland
Affiliations & Practice
Dr. Ellington's professional practice spans corporate operations, association management, and small business advisory. His current work is concentrated in three areas:
- Trade association leadership - representing the interests of more than 300 commercial construction firms before policymakers, in collective bargaining, and across industry partnerships.
- Fractional executive engagements - serving as fractional Chief Operating Officer for selected small and mid-sized firms in transition, growth, or turnaround.
- Executive coaching and AI adoption training - working one-on-one with founder-operators and equipping their teams with the practical disciplines required to deploy AI tools responsibly inside small businesses.
Speaking & Convening
Dr. Ellington keynotes, facilitates, and convenes on small business strategy, negotiation, organizational design, and AI adoption. Past audiences include trade associations, peer advisory networks, corporate leadership programs, and graduate business school cohorts.
For speaking or media inquiries, please visit the Media & Speaking page.