Manny Marcano, President and CEO of EMA Design Automation, started EMA in 1989, when Manny was walking the floor of a trade show in California. "We had been thinking of some kind of change for a while," said Nancy Marcano, Manny's wife and now vice president of EMA. "He told me, 'That's it. I want to make my own company’... he's a born salesman, so I was confident."

Manny Marcano served in the Air Force from 1972 until 1980. While he served, Manny earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Maryland, in 1980. When Manny left the Air Force, he and Nancy moved to Rochester, New York, so he could attend the Rochester Institute of Technology where he obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1982.

Manny soon realized he wanted to concentrate on selling engineering solutions, not designing them. Manny worked for a couple different VAR’s in Rochester before starting EM Associates (EMA) in 1989. During that time, Nancy Marcano was taking care of the Marcano children, assisting with their start-up business, and working toward obtaining her Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from the State University of New York Geneseo.

EMA started as a small company in the basement of their home. In 1995, the territory expanded, and the name changed from EM Associates to EMA Mid-Atlantic. At that time, EMA employed on average about 10 employees. Sales kept growing, and EMA was making a name for itself in the EDA marketplace.

EMA sold electronic design software made by Cadence Design Systems, Inc., based in San Jose, California, and had a sales territory in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic states. Sales grew gradually. In July 2002, Cadence asked EMA to take on thousands of its small and medium-size customers nationwide. It was a blockbuster deal, and the Marcano’s quickly set plans to hire more workers and move from EMA's space in their small farmhouse to office space of its own. The company is now based at 225 Tech Park Drive, Rochester, New York. There are now 100+ people employed by EMA. "What's next is we grow to service larger accounts," Marcano said, "and offer other product lines that go with our Cadence systems."