Abdul-wahab Alhaji

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

“I am a global, community-oriented leader with a passion for improving humanity through technology.”

Hometown: Kuwait City, Kuwait

Fun fact about yourself: I’m very passionate about community theater! I am a method actor and director. I have been acting since elementary school (in school, then in community theater). I developed by learning method acting under Alex Broun in Kuwait and Dubai. I plan to keep this hobby as an integral part of my life! At the Johnson School, I was involved in Johnson Follies, the annual MBA comedy show, where I was a board member and actor the first year, and am currently the show’s director.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, University of Rochester, 2018

Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester, 2017

Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Warba Bank of Kuwait, Assistant Manager, IT Audit and Data Analytics

Where did you intern during the summer of 2025? Capital One, McLean, VA, Summer Associate Product Manager

Where will you be working after graduation? Capital One, McLean, VA, Business Analysis Manager

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

Fried Fellow — One of five fellows selected annually by classmates and faculty in recognition of academic excellence and meaningful contribution to the Johnson community.

President, Arab Business Association — Led the Arab Business Association, fostering community and professional development for Arab students and broader cultural engagement across Johnson.

President and Captain, Johnson Crew — Led the rowing team and spearheaded its merger with the Cornell Rowing Club, expanding the program’s reach across the university.

President, Johnson Follies — Directed Johnson’s annual MBA comedy show after serving as a board member and actor.

Co-President, Big Red Tech Strategy — Co-led one of Johnson’s premier tech-focused student organizations, bridging the business and engineering schools and supporting alumni-founded startups in refining their strategies.

Career Working Group Leader — Guided a peer cohort through the recruiting process, facilitating feedback, accountability, and mutual growth.

Johnson Leadership Fellow — Coached five first-year students through their core academic semester.

Johnson Admissions Group Fellow — Served as a trusted ambassador for the program, assisting with admissions interviews.

VP Full-Time Education, High Tech Club — Oversaw educational programming for full-time MBA students, developing curriculum and events to build technical and strategic fluency.

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school?

Finalist, Tepper Tech Innovation Challenge —With my team, Well Red (Heng Du, Achint Agarwal, Sandra Linares), we developed an AI healthcare product that marked my first foray into AI as an early MBA student — a formative experience that set the direction for much of what followed.

Finalist, Kellogg Design Challenge — Applied human-centered design and operations principles in a live competition setting, building the product instincts I would later bring to my PM role at Capital One. Team: Bren Bodin, Heng Du, Rima Parabtani, Svikriti Kasichainula.

Finalist, Big Red Tech Case Competition — Represented and strengthened the High Tech Club community on Cornell’s own stage, turning a competition into a moment of organizational pride. Team: Heng Du, Charlotte Gressel, Chaiti Phanse.

Finalist, National Ethics Case Competition — Developed an original ethics evaluation framework applied to a live biopharma case alongside teammates Ethan Davis, Nayancie Matthews, and Siva Selvam, representing Johnson on a national stage.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? My summer project at Capital One was the perfect convergence of everything I’ve achieved thus far in my career. Placed at the core of the bank’s infrastructure, I was tasked with delivering architectural, business, and human capital recommendations on Capital One’s core banking system — a project that demanded distinct skill sets. My electrical engineering background helped to inform the technical architecture analysis.

My years at Deloitte and Warba Bank gave me industry fluency and niche knowledge to understand the stakes of every recommendation. And Johnson’s rigorous finance core gave me the tools to attach a monetary valuation to each one — ensuring every recommendation had a clear business case, not just a technical rationale. Johnson Professor of Practice Risa Mish’s Critical and Strategic Thinking course shaped how I structured and communicated it all. It was the biggest contributor to the strength of my pitch. Few projects ask you to be an engineer, a banker and an MBA all at once. This one did, and I was ready for it.

Why did you choose this business school? My relationship with Cornell started long before I applied to the Johnson School. As a member of the University of Rochester Debate Union, I visited Cornell for a competition — and something about the place stuck with me. It wasn’t just the campus. It was the people: the community among them and the warmth they extended to visitors, all combined with a sharp, competitive edge that I found magnetic. I wanted to be “one of them.” Years later, when it came time to choose an MBA program, the decision wasn’t hard. Cornell had already chosen me — I just had to make it official.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? Johnson Visiting Senior Lecturer Vidur Luthra, Lead of Digital Technology Immersion and faculty advisor for the High Tech Club.

I first met Vidur at Destination Johnson — admitted students’ weekend — and he was immediately, genuinely invested in each student. That didn’t change once the program started. DTI is demanding, and every one-on-one with Vidur pushed me further than I thought I could go. He has the instincts of an athletic coach: he knows exactly when to push and when to ease off. He motivated me with just the right approach.

The results speak for themselves. Through DTI and HTC, I delivered three distinct tech projects to the Johnson community and used them as proof of competency to successfully pivot into product management. Vidur didn’t just teach me technology strategy. He helped me build a professional story worth telling.

What was your favorite course as an MBA? Negotiations, taught by the legendary Johnson Clinical Professor Allan Filipowicz.

I wrote about this course in my admissions essay. Persuasion and consensus-building weren’t my strongest suit, and I knew Johnson had a reputation for standing out in this area — it was part of why I applied. The course delivered everything I hoped for and more, largely because it was entirely experiential. I believe in order to learn about negotiations, you need to learn by doing rather than reading out of a textbook.

I left not only as a better negotiator but as a better person. The biggest shift was in how I think about value. I no longer walk into conversations with a zero-sum mentality. I see myself as a steward of value for everyone in the room and I’ve come to believe that almost everything, approached right, can be win-win.

What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? Diwali, which is an event organized annually by the South Asian Business Club.

Diwali — the Hindu festival of lights, celebrating the triumph of light over darkness — comes alive every year in the heart of Johnson School’s Sage Hall. The South Asian Business Club transforms the space into a festive celebration of music, dance, and performance that draws the entire Johnson community together. I’ve performed myself, which says something, given that I’m not South Asian. That’s exactly the point. Diwali at Johnson isn’t just a cultural event for one community — it’s a masterclass in what genuine inclusion looks like. It reflects something I’ve always valued about Johnson: the cultural clubs don’t just serve their own, they open their doors and invite everyone in. The result is a school where different backgrounds don’t just coexist — they celebrate each other.

Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently and why? I’d start reading Marty Cagan earlier. On the recommendation of my summer manager at Capital One, Tim Emerson, I discovered Cagan’s trilogy — Inspired, Empowered, and Transformed — and it fundamentally shaped how I think about product management and technology leadership. The books reframed so much of what I was learning in real time. Had I read them before the MBA, I believe I would have extracted even more from the experience — asking sharper questions in class, connecting concepts faster, and arriving at insights that took me longer to reach. It’s a small regret in an otherwise rich two years, but a meaningful one.

What was the most impactful case study you had in business school and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? The case I worked on with Ethan Davis, Nayancie Matthews, and Siva Selvam for the National Ethics Case Competition. The challenge asked us to evaluate the tension between free market principles and corporate altruism — applied to a life-saving technology in biopharma. It’s a conversation I’d been turning over in my mind long before business school, and one that Professor Gautam Ahuja first gave real intellectual depth to in Strategy Formulation and Competitive Analysis. But the NECC forced me to go further: we had to build an ethics evaluation framework from scratch and stress-test it against some of the highest stakes imaginable — access to medicines that save lives.

The biggest lesson wasn’t a conclusion. It was the realization that the most important conversations in business don’t have clean endings. I came in with intuitions, developed them significantly alongside three brilliant teammates, and left with a richer, more honest understanding of the debate. I haven’t resolved it. But I’ve earned the right to keep asking the question.

Some people see Ithaca’s isolation as a drawback. I came to see it as the whole point.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI?

Johnson has taken a considered approach to AI integration — embracing it where it adds value and restricting it where it would undermine the point. AI is actively encouraged for recruiting and individual learning, where it genuinely accelerates growth. But in courses like Critical and Strategic Thinking, where the entire purpose is to develop your own mind, it’s appropriately restricted — and I appreciate that. The insight I’ve gained isn’t just about how to use AI; it’s about knowing when not to. That discernment, I think, is what separates AI users from AI strategists.

On the curriculum side, Johnson offers two standout courses that few programs can match. This includes AI Strategy and Applications and Designing Data Products, both taught by Professor Lutz Finger — one of the world-class faculty who produce genuine AI innovators and strategists. I’ve had the privilege of serving as course assistant for both, which has deepened my own understanding as much as any coursework.

Johnson doesn’t just teach you to use AI. It teaches you to think about it.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Tyler Hein. Tyler and I first worked together in our Career Working Group, and what struck me immediately was not just how well she received feedback from our leads, but how she made sure the entire group rose with her. That instinct to carry others forward is rare.

We went on to serve together on the High-Tech Club board, where Tyler was VP of Marketing. She took HTC’s brand and visibility to an entirely new level, and her post-MBA role at Adobe was not just well-earned — it’s a genuine gain for them.

I also had the privilege of traveling with Tyler on the Korea and Japan trek, where I watched her bring together Cornell’s international community with a combination of genuine warmth and principled strategy — a talent for finding the points of connection that make people feel they belong in the same room.

Tyler is a lifelong friend and professional contact. I feel privileged to have witnessed her growth up close and to having her significantly contribute to mine as well.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

First, to build and lead an A-team — people who share a genuine conviction that technology should better humanity, not just optimize metrics. To get there, I want to keep sharpening my technical edge while growing as someone who inspires others to do their best work. The goal isn’t just a high-performing team; it’s a purposeful one.

Second, to earn a seat at the table where company strategy is shaped — and use it. I want to be in the room where the big decisions are made, with enough influence to orient an organization’s direction toward something that genuinely matters.

The through line is the same in both: technology in service of humanity, built by people who believe it.

What made Abdul-wahab such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?  

“Abdul-wahab is one of those students who seems to know everyone — and more importantly, makes everyone feel known.

In my Digital Technology Immersion, he played a key role in developing BRAIN, the Big Red AI Network, a chatbot designed to support Johnson students to understand the resources available at Johnson to learn AI, and AI tools to prepare and apply for roles in Tech and AI companies.

What stood out about Abdul-wahab was his instinct to build something that would outlast the course and serve the broader community.

Across campus, Abdul-wahab has become a connector and culture builder. He has been an active leader in several student organizations, including the High-Tech Club, the Arab Business Association, Big Red Tech Strategy, and Johnson Follies, consistently bringing people together and creating spaces where students feel welcome and engaged. As captain of Johnson Crew, he also led the team’s merger with the Cornell Rowing Club, strengthening the program and expanding its reach within the university.

In the classroom, Abdul-wahab brings intellectual curiosity, humor, and integrity to discussions. He asks thoughtful questions, challenges ideas constructively, and encourages others to participate. His presence raises the energy in the room and reflects the collaborative leadership that Johnson strives to cultivate.”

Vidur Luthra
Visiting Senior Lecturer
Samuel Curis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

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