When Sandra Forero stepped into the role of chief operating officer at ZS in 2021, she did not arrive as an outside recruit brought in to shake up a legacy organization. Instead, her appointment was the culmination of a two-decade journey that began within the very walls of the global management consulting and technology firm. Forero has spent her entire professional life at ZS, joining the company in 2001 as an intern while simultaneously completing her MBA. Over the next twenty-five years, her unwavering loyalty to the firm became a testament not only to the strength of ZS’s organizational culture, but also to the active role she played in building, protecting, and evolving that culture—an achievement that earned her a coveted spot on Consulting Magazine’s prestigious list of the "Top 25 Consultants."
Yet, the foundations of Forero’s resilience and empathetic leadership style were forged thousands of miles away from corporate boardrooms, rooted in a personal history defined by courage and adaptation. She still carries vivid memories of the monumental transition she made years ago, moving to the United States from Colombia as a newly married immigrant with no financial safety net and a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to care for. Faced with daunting circumstances, there was simply no room for hesitation. Survival and eventual success demanded relentless hard work, strict personal discipline, and meticulous time management. There was no space for procrastination or deferring responsibilities to a later date. Rather than allowing the immense pressures of those early years to harden her emotionally, those challenging experiences shaped her into a deeply capable, grounded, and empathetic leader who understands the human element behind every professional challenge.
That capacity for navigating complex, high-stakes environments became evident a dozen years ago when Forero took on a pivotal client engagement. The project involved an extraordinarily large corporate transformation, guiding a major client through an evolution into a global analytics and technology shared services organization while simultaneously deploying a brand-new cloud-based technology infrastructure. As the project leader for ZS, Forero recalls feeling privileged to witness and direct such a massive operational shift.
It was a grueling undertaking fraught with difficult moments, but it ultimately provided a powerful platform for Forero to forge enduring client relationships across numerous functional areas and deliver tangible, transformative impact for the client organization. It stands out as one of the earliest global implementations of its kind executed by ZS. Beyond the technological and strategic milestones, the project offered a unique opportunity to collaborate closely with a diverse array of ZS subject-matter experts who had to synchronize their efforts to ensure the program succeeded. The collective experience served as a springboard for the careers of many talented professionals within the firm while simultaneously securing profound results for the client.
As chief operating officer, Forero now channels that same passion for large-scale transformation inward. Her daily focus is on evolving ZS as a premier global management consulting and technology firm, ensuring that the organization continually remains at the cutting edge of industry innovation and service delivery.
Articulating her overarching professional philosophy, Forero emphasizes a deep-seated desire to improve the human condition and the way people live and work. While those aspirations manifest differently for everyone, she notes that having a clear sense of purpose provides invaluable direction within a demanding corporate environment. Her primary objective remains delivering optimal impact for clients and helping them untangle their most complex operational problems, confident in the belief that if client success always comes first, every other measure of business achievement will naturally follow.
That dedication to stewardship and community extends directly to the people working inside ZS. As the firm experienced rapid and continuous global expansion, Forero and several of her colleagues recognized a latent risk: the unique culture that had made ZS such a special place to work might not be translated, preserved, or evangelized at the same rapid pace as the business was growing. To address this vulnerability, Forero proposed the creation of a dedicated worldwide team specifically tasked with defining, broadcasting, and protecting the core tenets of the culture that built ZS. This initiative led to the founding of the firm’s People and Culture Team. While the foundational concept was initially established by the founders of ZS four decades prior, Forero and her team successfully modernized and re-created it, focusing sharply on nurturing and evolving the essential cultural elements that define the company’s identity.
The profound strength of this shared culture was vividly demonstrated during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the global health crisis placed unprecedented strain on healthcare systems worldwide, the consulting organization leveraged its vast network of global partners and resources to actively locate and secure oxygen supplies and ventilators for ZS team members and their families in India. At a time when local supplies were severely depleted and the nation faced an acute crisis, the firm stepped in to provide vital aid.
Reflecting on those harrowing months, Forero acknowledges that while the relief effort in India was perhaps the most significant logistical undertaking, the underlying commitment was designed to prioritize the health and wellbeing of ZS personnel across the globe. Expressing immense pride, she notes her privilege in being part of a leadership team capable of responding to an unprecedented global crisis with deep empathy and decisive action, ensuring that employees received critical support during an exceptionally difficult chapter in modern history.
Forero’s institutional impact also includes serving as a founding member and former chair of the ZS Inclusion and Belonging Council. This vital governing body operates in tandem with the Shareholders’ Council, which functions as ZS’s board of directors, to intentionally cultivate an inclusive, high-performing environment for all employees. This initiative represents another defining chapter in the chief operating officer’s tenure, as the council actively advances policies, programs, and strategic initiatives designed to foster workplace fairness, expand professional opportunities, strengthen representation at all levels, and build a more deeply engaged and empowered workforce.
To lay the groundwork for the council, the specialized team conducted rigorous external benchmarking alongside comprehensive internal data analysis to pinpoint exact areas where ZS could improve its equity and inclusion metrics. They developed a concrete set of actionable recommendations and secured institutional backing by ensuring that the newly formed council maintained a direct reporting line to the Shareholders’ Council, thereby elevating its mission to the highest governance level of the firm.
The council remains an active fixture within ZS today, carrying forward the critical mission of ensuring that as the firm diversifies its project portfolio and expands its market reach, the internal organization accurately reflects the wide spectrum of skills, backgrounds, and experiences required in modern consulting. Forero’s dedication to professional equity and leadership extends well beyond the corporate boundaries of ZS. She lends her expertise to the wider industry by serving on the Global Board of Directors for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, where she currently holds the executive position of secretary and treasurer.
Forero’s professional trajectory illustrates a consistent pattern: whenever she identifies an unmet need within an organization or community, she takes direct action to address it. As she explains, this proactive approach is simply an authentic reflection of who she is and how she operates in the world.
Remaining true to her personal values means embracing vulnerability, openly acknowledging mistakes, and resisting the temptation to project an aura of infallible omniscience. Instead, she chooses to invest heavily in the development of others, recognizing that building strong, cohesive teams not only drives superior business results but also provides the deeply satisfying experience of watching colleagues grow and succeed. She places a premium on collaboration, noting that delivering the full capabilities of ZS to clients is achievable only through unified teamwork. Forero credits ZS with consistently providing her with the professional platform to pursue these goals while remaining entirely true to herself, a quality that anchors her enduring loyalty to the firm.
What began decades ago with a young couple moving from Colombia has since blossomed into a rich, enduring partnership and a thriving family. Forero speaks of her husband, Mauricio, as her best friend and partner through life’s changes. She describes her daughter and son with immense affection as "Version 2.0," viewing them as improved, evolved iterations of herself and her husband. Maintaining close ties to her roots, she speaks daily with her siblings back in Colombia, who remain a constant source of pride and joy. Whether she is rallying global resources during a pandemic, steering a major transformation project for a multinational client, or nurturing her family across continents, Sandra Forero continues to demonstrate a remarkable gift for bringing the right people together to achieve extraordinary things, both on and off the clock.
