Sandra Forero is the chief operating officer of ZS, a global management consulting and technology firm, a role she has held since 2021. She reached it without ever leaving the company where she began. ZS has been her home since 2001, when she joined the organization as an intern while working through her MBA. Her loyalty to ZS is both a reflection of a culture and the kind of culture-building she has engaged in over two-and-a-half decades, earning a spot on Consulting Magazine’s “Top 25 Consultants” in the process.
Her path to that role started thousands of miles away. Forero still remembers how it felt to move to the US from Colombia, newly married, with no money, and with a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. There was no choice. She had to work hard, learn to be disciplined, and manage her time wisely because there was no room for procrastination or leaving things for later. But rather than allowing those difficult experiences to emotionally harden her, they’ve made her a capable and empathetic leader.
A dozen years back, Forero remembers a client going through an incredibly large transformation, an evolution into a global analytics and technology shared services organization while, at the same time, implementing a new cloud-based tech infrastructure. Forero, the lead of this project for ZS, remembers feeling lucky to get to be part of such a massive transformation.
“It was hard, and there were difficult moments, but it ultimately created this great opportunity and platform for me to build strong client relationships across many different functions, and more importantly for us to drive incredible impact for our client,” Forero remembers. “It was one of the first global implementations that ZS did of that kind. It was also a chance to partner with so many others at ZS, subject-matter experts that needed to work collaboratively together to make the program successful. The entire experience helped propel the careers of so many good people here while driving real impact for the client organization.”
As COO, Forero says she now has the opportunity to drive those kinds of transformative projects within ZS, focusing on evolving the global management consulting and technology firm to ensure that it’s always on the cutting edge.
“We want to improve life and how we live it,” she says. “That has different meanings for different people, but for me, that gives me clarity of purpose here. I want to drive the best impact for our clients and help them solve tough problems. I’ve learned that if that’s always your first concern, everything else will follow.”
That passion is extended to those inside ZS. As her organization continued to expand quickly, she and several colleagues realized that what makes ZS so great, the culture, was at risk of not being properly translated and evangelized at the same speed. Forero proposed creating a worldwide team focused on defining and broadcasting those tenets of culture that helped build ZS into the organization it is today. That was when she founded the firm’s People and Culture Team. A concept that was first implemented by ZS’ founders 40 years ago, Forero and her team re-created it with a focus on nurturing and evolving the key elements of culture that make ZS so special.
That shared culture showed itself during the pandemic when the consulting organization was able to leverage its partners and resources to locate oxygen and ventilators for ZS team members and their families in India whose country, like so many, needed more supplies than were available in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
“India was perhaps our most significant effort, but we were able to prioritize the wellbeing of ZSers across the world,” Forero says. “I’m so proud of having been part of the leadership team that was able to respond to such a crisis moment with such a big heart. We were able to provide a lot of extra support in a very hard moment for our people.”
Forero was also a founding member and former chair of the ZS Inclusion and Belonging Council, a governing body that works with the Shareholders’ Council (ZS’s board of directors) to nurture an inclusive and high-performing culture for ZSers. It’s another defining chapter in the COO’s time at the firm, as the Council advances policies and initiatives designed to foster fairness, expand opportunity, strengthen representation and build a more engaged and empowered culture.
The new team conducted external benchmarking and internal analysis to identify where ZS could improve, developed a set of recommendations, and ensured that the new council could elevate its mission by reporting to ZS’s Shareholders’ Council, which serves as the firm’s board of directors.
The council still exists today and carries on the mission of ensuring that as ZS diversifies its work, the organization is a reflection of all the skills and experiences that are required. Her commitment extends beyond ZS as well. Forero serves on the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Global Board of Directors, where she is currently secretary/treasurer.
If it’s not abundantly clear, when Forero sees a need, she addresses it. That is who she is, and as she explains, that is all she can be.
“I just have to be me,” she says. “That means I admit my mistakes, I’m vulnerable, and I don’t act like I know everything. I invest in others, because building strong teams not only drives success but is immensely satisfying to see people growing. I love to work with others. Collaboration is so important; bringing the best of ZS to our clients can only be done working as a team. ZS has always given me opportunities to do all this and to be myself, and that’s what makes this place so great.”
What began as a marriage in Colombia has grown into a partnership spanning decades. Forero calls her husband, Mauricio, her best friend. She calls her family, her daughter and son, better versions of her and her husband, “Version 2.0.” She talks daily with her siblings, her other prides and joys, back in Colombia. Forero knows how to bring the best people together to make something great, both on and off the clock.
