Zach Ducheneaux served as the Administrator of the Farm Service Agency in the Biden‑Harris Administration until January 20, 2025. Before that, he was the Executive Director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council, where his work led to the creation of Akiptan CDFI. At FSA, he led a team that promulgated rule changes that formalized lending flexibility available since the Ag Credit Act of 1987, which became permanent in September of 2024.

He divested his ranching interests in 2025, but is now following the lead of the next generation on the 4th generation ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, operating DX LLC. His current work — building 5th C Finance—is informed by decades of working within existing structures to improve producer outcomes, always with an eye toward the systemic change needed to push further.

The first 5th C investment came from his own retirement—$30,000 deployed to a young Native American woman to start a cattle operation. That investment is the proof of concept: people are good, the terms of finance are the problem; agriculture is profitable, and producers will do better when given the right opportunity.