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Fulkerson Advisors
Locations · No. 01

A Cambridge-anchored AI advisory practice

Cambridge, MA. Fulkerson Advisors is based a short walk from MIT and Kendall Square, in the densest concentration of applied AI talent in the United States. We work with Fortune 500 clients across the country; the Cambridge anchor shapes how we hire, who we draw on, and how we think about the seam between research and production.

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Where the firm lives

Cambridge anchor, national clients

Our registered address is in Cambridge, MA, a few minutes from MIT, Sloan, and the Kendall Square cluster that has become the center of applied AI in the United States. That is where the firm is based; it is not where most of our work happens. Our clients are Fortune 500 operators across asset management, legal, retail, healthcare, and enterprise software, and our partners spend the majority of their weeks embedded with those teams. The Cambridge anchor matters because it shapes who we hire, who we call when an engagement needs a subject-matter expert, and how we think about the path from research to production. It does not mean we expect clients to come to us.

The ecosystem premium

Why Boston-pedigreed matters for enterprise AI

Cambridge and Boston produce a particular kind of practitioner. The proximity of MIT, Sloan, Harvard, and a venture community that has funded applied AI for two decades creates a talent pool trained to move between research and application without losing either side. That matters for enterprise AI work specifically, because the failure mode is rarely the model; it is the translation. Most pilots that stall do so at the seam between a working prototype and a production system that survives audit, integration, change management, and the second quarter. A Boston-pedigreed advisor is, at minimum, a useful signal that the firm has done that translation before. We treat it as a baseline credential, not a marketing line.

The practitioners

Who you'll work with

Every engagement is led by one of the three partners; no partner-and-bait staffing. Christian Adib (Founder) is MIT Leaders for Global Operations (Sloan MBA and Engineering MS) and Columbia engineering undergrad, with prior careers at Booz Allen, BCG (senior data scientist on forward-deployed teams), and a $2B hedge fund book. Bilal Bitar (Co-Founder) is McKinsey and INSEAD, with a development-finance investment banking background across the European Investment Bank, DEG, PROPARCO, and Finnfund. Cynthia Hajal (COO) is a systems engineer turned operations leader; the translation layer between technical capability and business operations. Carl Nehme (Advisor) is former McKinsey, founder of Trumpit (acquired by Wayfair), co-founder of Goodpath, and holds a PhD in aerospace engineering.

The work

What we work on, in Cambridge and out of it

The engagements we run out of Cambridge tend to fall into a few shapes. Asset managers ask us to compress research-to-production time on quantitative strategies; we recently stood up an equity index backtesting environment for a $55B US pension fund that turned a quarterly process into a daily one. Law firms ask us to take repetitive associate work, pre-litigation interviews, document assembly, citation review, and put it inside an LLM agent that a partner can supervise. Retailers ask us to forecast demand at a granularity their ERP cannot reach. Enterprise software companies ask us where AI belongs in their roadmap, and more usefully, where it does not. The geography of the work is national; the discipline behind it is shaped by where we sit.

Practical next step

How to engage

The first conversation is a working briefing with Christian Adib. Sixty to ninety minutes, no slides, no junior associates taking notes. You describe the problem you are trying to solve or the decision you are trying to make; we tell you whether we are the right firm for it, and if we are not, who is. If there is a fit, the next step is a scoped diagnostic, two to four weeks, fixed fee, written deliverable, so that any larger commitment is made against a real artifact rather than a sales conversation. Cambridge-based clients often prefer to do the briefing in person. National clients almost always prefer video. Either is fine.

Who you’ll work with

Christian Adib

Christian Adib

Founder & Managing Partner

MIT Leaders for Global Operations (MBA, Sloan; MS, Engineering); previously BCG senior data scientist on forward-deployed teams and quant on a $2B hedge fund book.

Practice background

  • Christian Adib began his career in management consulting at Booz Allen Hamilton and the Boston Consulting Group, where, as a senior data scientist, he led forward-deployed teams — embedding engineers alongside client operators rather than handing over slideware. He then joined a hedge fund, where, as part of a small team managing a $2B portfolio, he drove quantitative research and built products from scratch.
  • An engineer by training, Christian went on to complete MIT's Leaders for Global Operations program, earning an MBA alongside a master's in engineering. He founded Fulkerson Advisors to close the gap he kept seeing between AI's promise and what survives contact with production — building the firm around one conviction: that the people who scope an initiative should be the ones who ship it.

Case files

  1. Asset Management

    Pension fund equity index strategy backtesting

    Stood up a backtesting engine that let a $55B US pension fund test factor strategies in days rather than quarters.

  2. Legal

    Pre-litigation interview and document automation

    Shipped an LLM agent inside a top-5 US law firm that conducts pre-litigation interviews and assembles document packets associates used to draft by hand.

See all case files
Frequently asked

Questions we hear most.

Are you an in-person firm? Do you have a Boston office I can visit?
We are Cambridge-anchored and remote-fluent. The firm's registered address is in Cambridge, MA, and we meet clients in person regularly; in their offices, at MIT, or in Boston. We do not run a downtown lobby you can walk into between meetings, and we do not think Fortune 500 buyers want one. What we do offer is on-site weeks with the partner leading the engagement when the work demands it.
Do you only work with Boston and New England clients?
No. Most of our work is for Fortune 500 clients across the United States, with engagements in asset management, legal, retail, healthcare, and enterprise software. Cambridge is where the firm is based; it is not where our clients live. The forward-deployed model means our practitioners go to where the work is.
What is the actual connection to MIT?
Christian Adib is an MIT Leaders for Global Operations alum (joint MBA from Sloan and MS in Engineering). The program sits at the intersection of operations, manufacturing, and applied technology, which is the same seam most enterprise AI work occupies. We draw on the broader MIT and Sloan alumni network for talent and subject-matter experts, but we are not an MIT spinout or a research lab.
Why does a Boston-pedigreed advisor matter for AI work I could buy anywhere?
It matters less than the buyer's specific need, and more than most firms admit. The Boston and Cambridge ecosystem; MIT, Sloan, Harvard, the venture and research community along Kendall and Main Street, produces a particular kind of practitioner: trained to move between research and application without losing either. If your AI initiative requires that translation, pedigree is a useful proxy. If it does not, hire on the work.
Can we visit your team at MIT or in Cambridge for a working session?
Yes. We host working sessions in Cambridge regularly, and we can arrange space at or near MIT for executive offsites when the agenda calls for it. Most clients prefer we come to them; a smaller number find it valuable to bring their leadership team to Cambridge for two days of structured working sessions. Either is on the table.

Bring us a question, and we’ll bring you an honest read.

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