A Career Built on Modernizing What Matters.

Mai Burnette has spent more than two decades helping organizations modernize how they work — from some of the most complex institutions in the country to the small and mid-size businesses she works with today. Her focus has always been the same: turning big, abstract goals into a plan people can actually execute, and building the systems that keep it running after the plan gets filed away.

She built her craft at Booz Allen Hamilton and Grant Thornton, where she led modernization and transformation initiatives for U.S. federal agencies including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Commerce (DOC), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She has also advised clients ranging from Accenture to small and mid-size businesses, bringing that same discipline to organizations of every size.

Today, Mai works primarily with small and mid-size businesses — helping owners and leadership teams put the strategy, people, processes, and technology in place that let a business run without depending on any one person, including its founder.

Beyond her advisory work, Mai is a seasoned entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Mai's Kitchen Food Service. In December 2020, she published her debut book, Cooking with Mai: Easy to Prepare West African Food, as part of her mission to bridge cultural gaps through the culinary arts. This commitment to community extends to her leadership of the Women's Empowerment Network (WE Network) and her podcast, Conversations with Mai, where she interviews executives, community leaders, and entrepreneurs to share insights and foster the cross-sector innovation necessary to inspire the next generation of global change-makers. Mai's own journey is also featured in An Immigrant's Guide To Making It In America by Virgilia Kaur Pruthi (2014), a collection of stories and interviews with immigrants who've built successful lives in the U.S. 

Born in Sierra Leone and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Mai's West African heritage shapes how she thinks about opportunity and access. She recently developed a strategic deployment proposal for the Najafi 100 Million Learners Global Initiative, focused on expanding access to education for women and girls in Chad.

She stays engaged in the conversations connecting public policy with everyday impact — because the same discipline that helps a government agency serve its citizens, or a small business serve its customers, starts with the same question: what does the person you're serving actually need?

Mai's path toward public service began with an internship at the U.S. House of Representatives during her undergraduate years. She holds a B.S. in Political Science and Criminal Justice and an MBA, both from Frostburg State University, and an Executive Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Above all her professional accomplishments, Mai is the proud mother of her daughter, Aziza.

→ Outgrowing your systems? See how Mai can help your business. Growing Businesses → Navigating systemic change? Explore institutional & enterprise advisory. Institutions-Enterprises → See Mai's talks. Speaking