Maria Surinach
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Degree: Cornell Executive MBA Metro NY
Age: 39
“Retail operator turned founder, building AI-powered solutions for modern businesses.”
Hometown: Cedar Knolls, New Jersey
Family Members: Husband Dan, and children Leo and Tulip, ages 5 and 3.
Fun Fact About Yourself: I’m a marathoner and thrill-seeker who enjoys skydiving, paragliding and pilot lessons. I have always been drawn to things that require training, discipline, and a willingness to be uncomfortable.
Undergraduate School and Degree: Fashion Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising, Minor in Buying and Planning.
Where are you currently working? Founder and Principal Consultant at Surinach & Co., a boutique consulting firm specializing in AI solutions design, enterprise transformation, and change management.
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles
Academic Honors & Specializations: Dean’s List; AI Specialization; AI Solutions Certificate; Cornell AI Club; Cornell Consulting Club
Entrepreneurship & Innovation: Most Novel Business Idea, Cornell AI Hackathon (MedSpace AI); MIT Google DeepMind AI Hackathon participant; Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator (JSSA)
Global Immersion: Family Businesses in Italy Trek (2025); Global Business Study to Vietnam (2026)
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I found out about two AI hackathons happening back-to-back: one at MIT with Google DeepMind and another at Cornell. The applications were due in a few days, and I had never competed in a hackathon before. I applied to both, hoping to get in.
I was selected by MIT a week before it started. Alexis You, my classmate and teammate, was selected shortly after. We booked hotels, packed our laptops, and drove to Cambridge. In six hours, we built and demoed Eathos, an AI kitchen assistant that scans your fridge, manages your nutrition, and suggests personalized recipes (with grocery shopping powered by Instacart). We didn’t win. I drove home, and five days later, I did it all over again at Cornell, this time with a class conflict and a final exam waiver standing between me and the hackathon.
That weekend, we built MedSpace AI, an intelligent hospital space planning system that identifies underutilized rooms and converts them into capacity and revenue. We won Most Novel Business Idea. As a non-technical founder competing alongside engineers for the first time, it was proof that the right idea matters more than the right background. Having a brilliant partner to build with made the whole thing possible, and that collaboration has continued well beyond the competition floor.
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Launching Surinach & Co. mid-program is the achievement I am most proud of. It was not planned; it grew organically out of conversations with retail industry connections who kept asking about the AI work I was doing at Cornell. I realized there was a clear gap in the market for AI consulting grounded in retail operations, and that my background fit that need perfectly. The EMBA gave me the frameworks, the confidence, and the network to act on it. Building a business while raising kids and finishing a degree is the hardest thing I have done professionally, but it’s also the most rewarding.
Who was your favorite MBA professor? The caliber of Cornell’s faculty is exceptional, and picking just one favorite is nearly impossible. That said, three professors changed how I think in ways I will carry beyond graduation:
Johnson Professor of Practice Risa Mish’s Critical Thinking course was built around a simple but powerful idea: leading well requires thinking well. She gave us a concrete methodology for getting to the root of any problem, building an argument that holds up, and communicating a solution people can act on. It was one of the most practical classes I’ve taken in this program.
Johnson Professor Justin Johnson’s Business Strategy course covered five forces, M&A, platform strategy, and vertical integration with substantial depth. What made it exceptional was that he treated our professional experience equally. The most valuable lessons came from the people in the classroom, not just the curriculum.
Johnson Visiting Lecturer Clarence Lee made the future feel tangible. His Machine Learning course covered AI agents, multi-agent systems, and large language models through a business-first lens, culminating in a functioning prototype our team built, demoed, and could have been taken to market. I left that course thinking differently about what I’m capable of building as a non-technical leader.
Every Cornell professor made a difference, and I feel genuinely lucky to have learned from such an outstanding group.
Why did you choose this school’s Executive MBA program? The curriculum is what drew me first. Cornell’s EMBA, backed by the credibility of an Ivy League institution, offered an expansive range of courses that covered both how to run an existing business and how to build a new one from scratch. It is also known for having one of the strongest networks in business education, and I can say firsthand that the reputation is well-earned. The alumni, the program leadership, the cohort: the warmth of this group exceeded every expectation. There are WhatsApp groups created entirely by students and alumni with the sole purpose of connecting people. Need an industry expert, a coffee chat, a second opinion? Someone always shows up. I have never experienced a professional network quite like it.
What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? The biggest lesson was learning to trust my expertise in unfamiliar territory. I came in as an operator with 15 years of experience. I was structured and execution-focused, someone who had spent her entire career in large corporations and had never considered entrepreneurship or consulting. I also came in with little experience with AI. Through Cornell SC Johnson College of Business courses and resources, I came to understand what this technology could do and what it meant for businesses. Program courses gave me a framework for identifying problems, designing practical solutions, and trusting that my experience was an asset worth building on.
Give us a story during your time as an Executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? The week before my Global Study Trek to Vietnam might be the most accurate snapshot of what this program looks like from the inside. I had a new client call that turned into a substantial proposal I needed to turn around quickly. I had applied to Cornell’s Johnson Summer Startup Accelerator and suddenly had a virtual interview on the calendar in the middle of chaos. I had two lengthy course modules with assignments due for my AI Solutions Certificate, starting while I was mid-travel. And I had to prepare my family for two weeks without me.
The JSSA interview is the detail that still makes me laugh. I had intended to prepare for it, but the week had other plans. I showed up to the virtual call thirty minutes after getting three travel vaccines, visibly flustered. I explained my business idea the best I could. Two weeks later, we got the email: we were in.
None of it would have been possible without my husband, Dan. There were plenty of classmates who could not take the Vietnam trip because of family obligations at home, and I do not take it lightly that I could. He had two toddlers under five to manage, mostly on his own, for two weeks. Dan is the kind of partner who does not just hold things together while I am away. He actively pushes me forward. Every plan, every idea, every opportunity: he is always the first one to say, “Go for it”.
What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an Executive MBA program? Do not underestimate the time commitment. The work requires consistent effort most nights, plus team meetings on top of a full-time career. Pace yourself rather than trying to do it all at once. Invest in your cohort early. You will be surprised by how much you can learn from the people around you, and how the Cornell network comes through when you need it most.
What was your biggest regret in business school? It was not giving more time to clubs and volunteer work. I joined the Cornell AI Club and the Consulting Club, but bandwidth was a significant constraint. Between a full-time career, raising children, launching a business, and maintaining my GPA, something had to give. I made peace with that tradeoff, but I do wish I had been able to show up more, take on a leadership role, and give back to the community the way so many of my classmates did so generously.
What is one way that your business school has integrated ai into your programming? Cornell has woven AI throughout the Executive MBA program. Required courses like Machine Learning Applications in Business and Innovation and New Venture Creation integrated AI as both a subject and a hands-on tool, from building functioning prototypes to using it for ideation and research. There is also a full AI specialization track covering AI Strategy, Technology Practicum, and more. Beyond the curriculum, elective courses focus on AI as well as additional resources such as AI hackathons and the Cornell AI Club.
What makes this even more meaningful is that the AI specialization pathway launched with my cohort. We have been providing feedback throughout, and the program’s administration has actively sought our perspective to improve the experience for future students. We did not just benefit from the pathway; we helped shape it.
What was the main reason you chose an Executive MBA Program over Part-Time or Online alternatives? I needed to be in the room. After years of post-pandemic back-to-back Zoom calls, the idea of spending my weekends on another screen felt like the wrong investment. The every-other-weekend format gave me the structure I needed without stepping away from my career or my family. Because it was every other weekend, I could still be present at home in between. More importantly, it gave me the energy to be physically present with 70 accomplished professionals who pushed my thinking in real time. The dinners after class, the hallway conversations, and the moments between sessions. That is where some of my best thinking happened and where the strongest bonds were formed.
How did you finance your EMBA and what did you do to make tuition and associated costs more affordable? I financed my EMBA through personal savings and a Home Equity Line of Credit. A HELOC is an option for many students overlook, but the interest rates can be more favorable than traditional graduate student loans. It is worth exploring before defaulting to FAFSA. It was a significant financial commitment, and the best investment I have made in my career.
What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? My goal is to keep building. Working closely with organizations to drive meaningful transformation, embedding AI where it creates the most leverage, and helping teams get out from under the work that should not require a human in the first place. Longer term, I plan to launch a technology venture of my own.
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