Presenter Details

M.B.A.'90, CEO, Strategic Gain

Susan Gurnik, M.B.A.'90, is CEO and Founder of Strategic Gain Coaching and Consulting, where she has spent the past 18 years helping leaders create careers and lives that reflect their authentic selves. As a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), she works at the intersection of strategy and self-awareness, helping clients gain both clarity about who they are and courage to lead from that truth. Susan's own journey exemplifies the power of living aligned. With an engineering degree, an M.B.A., and careers in engineering and commercial real estate, she realized she'd become known as "the numbers person" when her real strengths were in strategy, creativity, and developing people. That gap between external perception and internal reality led her to reinvent her career path, founding Strategic Gain to help others navigate similar transformations. Today, Susan partners with organizations including SpaceX, General Mills, and high-growth companies at critical inflection points. Her work includes guiding a founder through explosive growth from 22 to 180+ locations, helping an aerospace executive bridge a 30-year generational gap with their team, and supporting leadership teams through major corporate acquisitions. Susan believes that sustainable success requires alignment of our authentic selves with our careers – a philosophy she's eager to explore with the Duke Women's Weekend community.