Marta Zaragoza
Biography
Marta Zaragoza has over 17 years of experience in strategic transformation and change management consulting, primarily serving clients in financial services, oil and gas, and professional services sectors. As the global partner and executive vice president at BTS, she leads the Southern European and Latin American markets, managing a business of over $30 million in revenue, 175 professionals, and nine offices.
Prior to BTS, Zaragoza worked at KPMG, where she started her career, and at General Electric, where she had her first international assignment. Under Zaragoza’s leadership, BTS has expanded with new offices in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, and through acquisitions in Italy and Spain. Zaragoza led BTS’s global research on mechanisms for sustainable behavior change. Zaragoza earned an MBA from Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain) and an undergraduate degree in Economics & Business from Universidad La Comercial de Deusto (Bilbao, Spain).
Area of Expertise
Marta Zaragoza, EVP and Managing Director-SELAM at BTS Group PLC, is an expert in running and growing a multinational professional services business. Responsible for the P&L for the Southern European and Latin American markets for BTS, a public company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Marta is currently leading a business of more than 30 million euros, 175 professionals and 9 offices in continuous growth in the field of the human side of strategy and change. Under her leadership, the BTS business in those markets has grown both organically (managing the opening of new offices in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina) and through acquisitions (in Italy and Spain).
She is an expert in integrating new business lines and new geographies to accelerate their value. Her success in building new BTS teams drawing from very different countries and cultures and then successfully integrating these new business units into the company has played a major role in Marta’s growth, development and achievements.
Marta has extensive experience in strategic transformation and change initiatives for strategic accounts in sectors such as Financial Services, Oil & Gas and Professional Services. Her work includes cultural transformations, sales transformations, talent & leadership development initiatives and strategic alignment modelling and deployment initiatives.
She also leads the BTS global initiative and research to identify the mechanisms needed in a moment of transformation to ensure a sustainable change of behaviors at both individual and organizational levels.
Throughout her career, Marta has grown as a person and as a leader, shaping her team management and leadership skills from both a professional and personal perspective. Marta contributed to BTS being awarded the Empowering Women’s Talent seal in 2022 and to the nomination of the company as one of the 100 best companies to work for in Spain in 2022 and 2023.
One of her key strengths, as highlighted by her own teams, clients, and other professionals, is her ability concisely analyze and identify the root cause of a problem, challenge or need. Marta is also characterized by her non-conformism and constant search for ways to improve and grow, both individually and for her teams.
Prior to joining BTS, Marta started her career as an auditor at KPMG and was later Financial Controller at G.E. She has also worked for the strategy department in the Telecommunications industry.
Group Overview
BTS is a global consulting firm that accelerates results by linking strategy with people and culture. From the C-suite to the front line, we focus on making strategy real and on building the conditions for engagement, adoption, and ownership to drive aligned action and to make change stick. BTS services support a wide range of client challenges, including leader readiness and development from the front line to the C-suite; strategy execution and business transformation; talent selection and succession; go to market; strategy creation and implementation, as well as large-scale cultural transformation and change management processes.
For over 35 years, BTS has focused on the human side of change and the use of proprietary methodologies for simulation, learning, coaching, gamification and assessment. BTS partners with nearly 1,200 organizations, including more than 40 of the top 100 global corporations.
BTS is a public company listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BTS B, and its operation in Spain has placed it on Actualidad Económica’s list of the 100 best companies to work for and has allowed it to be considered by FENAC as one of the top 50 consulting and professional services companies in the country.
In the last financial year, marked by global inflation, the company achieved its best last quarter ever with a 21% increase in EBITA. BTS’s net sales amounted to EUR 240 million, an increase of 2% compared to the previous year.
Clients & methodology
Today, BTS works for more than 70% of the Fortune 100 companies. In terms of clients, the firm serves companies from all sectors, including major global players such as Salesforce, EY, KPMG, Accenture, LG, Microsoft, UPS, Almirall, JP Morgan, Pfizer, BBVA, Santander, Nike or Bulgari. This vast and diverse roster of clients demonstrates BTS’ ability to adapt and deliver effective solutions across a variety of industries, strengthening its position as a global leader in professional services.
BTS’s extensive solutions and offerings provide a complete approach that includes strategic execution and business overview, change and transformation, assessment, sales and marketing transformations, innovation and digital transformation, as well as leadership readiness and development and executive coaching. In this way, BTS delivers holistic solutions that address the specific needs of its clients, improving their performance and facilitating their sustainable growth.
The experiences that BTS creates build the alignment, mindset and capabilities needed to deliver better results faster. This constant search for excellence in the field of organizational transformation has been fundamental to BTS’s success and to its reputation as one of the world’s leading consulting firms.
Awards & recognitions
BTS has achieved numerous industry recognition awards, including the prestigious Brandon Hall Awards for industry leading client successes globally. The awards honour excellence in training and development, and reward organizations that deliver breakthroughs in improving competencies and organizational performance. They are the most sought-after awards in the learning and development industry, and BTS clients regularly rank in the top number of awards each year.
BTS has also been honoured several times with the Stevie Awards. The company has won the “Sales Achievement – Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year” in both Business Services Industries and All Other Industries categories. In addition, at the Stevie Asia-Pacific Awards, the company was recognized with a gold award for “Innovation in Education or Training Apps”, highlighting its leadership in creating innovative educational applications.
The company has also been recognised by Selling Power as one of the “Top Virtual Sales Training Companies” in 2023 and has been repeatedly included in its anual “Top 20 Virtual Sales Training Company” and “Top Sales Training Company” lists. These distinctions are given to companies that deliver virtual and traditional sales training programmes that are highly effective, innovative and show a significant impact on their customers’ sales results. Likewise, Training Industry has bestowed BTS with several awards, highlighting the company on its list of “Top Leadership Training Companies” in 2022 and consistently including BTS on the “Top 20 Sales Training & Enablement Companies” and “Top 20 Sales Training Companies” lists. These honours recognise the best leadership and sales training companies, evaluating criteria such as innovation, business impact and quality of training programmes.
BTS has also won Training Industry’s “Top 20 Companies for Assessment and Evaluation” for 7 consecutive years, starting in 2017.
Firm Overview
BTS is a global professional services firm headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with more than 1,200 professionals in 38 offices on six continents.
As a global professional services firm, BTS has a broad international presence with offices on every continent. In North America, BTS has offices in San Francisco, San Rafael, Phoenix, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto and Mexico City. This network allows it to serve a wide variety of industries and markets in a key region of the global economy.
In Europe, BTS has a strong presence with offices in London, Portsmouth, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Milan, Bilbao, Madrid and Barcelona. Thanks to this strategic location, BTS offers its services in multiple countries, facilitating its ability to lead transformation and development projects across the continent.
In Asia, the presence in strategic cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Jakarta is focused on addressing the specific needs of Asian markets, which are known for their dynamism and rapid economic growth.
In other regions of the world, BTS has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Johannesburg
As well as its geographic expansion, BTS has grown significantly through a series of strategic acquisitions. In 2000, BTS went public on the stock exchange. Subsequently, BTS continued its global expansion by acquiring BTS Australia in 2002 and BTS Spain in 2003. In 2005, it acquired SMG, and in 2007, Real Learning / APG. The acquisition of Wizerize in 2013, Fenestra and AVO in 2014, and Synergy in 2015 further strengthened its capabilities.
Between 2016 and 2021, BTS continued its acquisitive growth strategy, integrating companies such as Cesim Italy, Lebu, D&I, Coach in a Box, MTAC, Swiss VBS, Rapid Learning, Bates Communications and Netmind. These acquisitions have enabled BTS to broaden its service offering and strengthen its position in the global market. In 2023, BTS acquired Boda Group, consolidating its leadership in the professional services industry. In 2024, BTS acquired Wonderway GmbH, to leverage their pioneering capabilities in AI-powered sales performance SaaS.
These acquisitions reflect BTS’s commitment to continually expand and enhance its capabilities to better serve its global clients. Each acquisition has been a key piece in building a company capable of delivering comprehensive solutions tailored to the needs of organizations around the world.