Vellodi began his career as a consultant to Merck and then joined Xerox Corporation, where he held several assignments in operations, strategic planning and market development. Vellodi founded Sutherland in 1986 because he believed there was a void in the market for outsourcing customer-management services. Under his direction, Sutherland’s employment has grown from 600 a year ago to 1,500, including 1,100 in the Rochester area, and has yielded an annual growth rate of over 65 percent. Vellodi, active in several philan- thropic and civic organizations, won the Ernst & Young 1997 Upstate New York Entrepreneur of the Year award.