Sylvester Renner

Sylvester Renner, MBA is a nonprofit founder, institutional leader, and author whose work sits at the intersection of mission, governance, and sustainable organizational development.

He is the Founder and President of Develop Africa, a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit he incorporated in 2006 to expand access to education and opportunity in Sierra Leone. His writing draws directly from two decades of building a real institution across two continents — with the board minutes, the financial records, the program failures, and the structural turning points included. It is not borrowed theory. It is documented practice.

Born in Sierra Leone, Sylvester attended Fourah Bay College in Freetown before building his career in the United States. He holds an MBA from Bowling Green State University with a specialization in Information Systems and is based in Johnson City, Tennessee.

He speaks and advises on nonprofit governance, institutional development, and the leadership transitions that determine whether organizations endure.