London · UK, Spain & LATAM

Lourdes SaezBusiness Transformation & Customer Operations Leader

Business Transformation LeaderCustomer Operations · Digital Growth · CX

Former UK telecom CEO with executive, consulting and operational leadership experience. I help consumer and service-led businesses turn strategy into operating performance.

More than 4×revenue
€20Mcost savings
+20NPS points
45%online sales
01

Positioning

Transformation leadership

Across customer, digital and operations

My work sits at the intersection of business transformation, customer operations, digital growth and operating model change.

I have led companies, built consulting practices and delivered transformation programmes across telecom, fibre, infrastructure and multi-brand B2C environments—combining strategic leadership with practical execution and measurable results.

02

What I do

Business problems I solve

What I help organisations with

01

Strategy to execution

Turning ambitious business priorities into practical operating models, accountable teams, delivery rhythm and measurable outcomes.

02

Customer operations & CX

Redesigning customer journeys, service models and cross-channel operations to improve satisfaction, efficiency and commercial performance.

03

Digital growth & self-service

Scaling online sales, digital care, automation and data-led decisioning across B2C and subscription-based businesses.

04

Operating model simplification

Reducing complexity after growth, acquisition, restructuring or channel expansion.

05

AI-enabled transformation

Applying AI, analytics and automation pragmatically to improve routing, service quality, productivity and customer outcomes.

Leadership focus

Selected leadership mandates

  • Transformation Director
  • Customer Operations Director
  • Customer Experience Director
  • Digital Transformation Director
  • Strategy & Operations Director
03

Experience

Executive track record

Experience snapshot

Leadership across UK and Spanish telecom, fibre infrastructure, consulting and consumer service environments.

01

UK retail fibre broadband

2024–2026

Hey!Broadband

CEO

A UK retail internet service provider focused on residential customer acquisition, take-up growth and service performance.

Led the retail ISP through accelerated growth, sharper commercial focus and operational improvement.

  • More than quadrupled revenue while improving the cost base as the business scaled.
  • Doubled customer adoption of broadband services by transforming online acquisition, developing the affiliate channel and strengthening telesales and door-to-door sales.
  • Presented business performance and strategic priorities to the Board.
  • Defined propositions and pricing for value-added services, bundles and new product lines, such as mobile, to improve ARPU.
02

UK wholesale fibre infrastructure

2024–2026 · Alongside CEO role at Hey!Broadband

F&W Networks

Chief Marketing Officer

A UK wholesale fibre infrastructure business supporting network expansion and connectivity services.

Led marketing and communications during a key phase of market positioning and visibility building.

  • Increased media visibility by more than 150% year on year.
  • Strengthened market recognition in the UK fibre and infrastructure sector.
  • Contributed to industry recognition, including Connected Britain finalist positions.
03

Spain, UK & LATAM consulting

2020–2024

Nae

Value Creator · Digital & Customer Experience Practice Leader

A telecom and digital transformation consulting firm working with operators across Spain, the UK and LATAM.

Built and grew a Digital & CX consulting practice, combining business development, delivery leadership and senior client advisory.

  • Created and scaled the Digital & CX practice.
  • Sold and delivered six-figure transformation engagements.
  • Led long-running transformation programmes and teams of up to 12 consultants.
04

Spanish multi-brand challenger telco

2016–2019

MASMOVIL Group

One of Spain's most successful telecom challengers, competing across mobile, fibre and convergent consumer services.

Head of Online

2016–2018
Led digital sales, online customer service, social care, and web and app development.

Head of Employee Experience

2018–2019
Created and led the employee experience function and internal transformation initiatives.

Head of Online

  • Made online the main B2C sales channel for key brands, reaching 34% of Yoigo sales and 45% of MASMOVIL sales.
  • Increased digital post-sales usage by 30% and social media first-contact resolution by 400%.

Head of Employee Experience

  • Created the Employee Experience department and led SAP migration across seven companies in nine months.
  • Improved employee climate by five points to above 80%.
05

International telecom operator

2015–2016

Vodafone Spain

Online Customer Service Manager

The Spanish operation of Vodafone Group, one of the major international telecom operators.

Led online customer service transformation focused on lower service cost, greater digital adoption and stronger customer handling.

  • Reduced targeted call costs by 90% through IVR automation.
  • Defined a new online customer service platform for all customers and services in ten weeks.
  • Achieved a 100% manager index in the employee engagement survey.
06

Large-scale Spanish cable & broadband

1999–2014

ONO

Digital Sales & CX · Retail · Process Improvement · Go-to-Market · Data

A leading Spanish cable and broadband operator later acquired by Vodafone, with large-scale retail and consumer service operations.

Progressed through multiple digital, commercial and operational roles, building broad transformation experience in a major B2C operator.

  • Grew online sales to 36% without channel cannibalisation.
  • Built digital customer care from the ground up, shifting 65% of customer interactions to self-service, reducing annual care costs by EUR 2M and increasing company-wide NPS by 20 points.
  • Created a network of more than 300 stores and franchises, increasing productivity per point of sale by 300%.
  • Delivered €20M cost savings through Six Sigma process improvement.
  • Reduced TV churn by more than 20% and improved post-acquisition efficiency by 13%.
04

Recommendations

External perspective

What colleagues say

Perspectives from people who have worked with me across transformation, digital and commercial leadership.

She is curious, restless, and always attentive to what is coming next. She is able to understand new technologies while asking the most important question: how they can bring real value to the customer and to the business.

Read full recommendationClose recommendation

I have known Lourdes for many years, and if I had to highlight one thing about her, it would be her extraordinary ability to understand the business while never losing sight of people. And you will know exactly what I mean when I say that there are people you work with and, over time, you realize that they are not only great professionals, but also good people worth having close by. Lourdes is definitely one of them.

She knows a great deal about customer experience, business, and digital transformation, but I believe what truly makes her special is that she does not stay at the theoretical level. She has the ability to understand a problem, put herself in the customer’s shoes, think it through, and find a solution that also makes sense for the business.

She is curious, restless, and always attentive to what is coming next. She is able to understand new technologies while asking the most important question: how they can bring real value to the customer and to the business. And she usually does so with a great deal of common sense, which is not always as obvious or as easy to find as it may seem. But above all, Lourdes is a great colleague: committed, generous, approachable, and with a strong personality. What makes a huge difference is that she knows how to listen, accept other points of view, and work as part of a team. She inspires trust and helps the people who work with her give their best, and I consider that an outstanding quality.

I have been fortunate enough to know Lourdes both professionally and personally, to see up close the way she faces challenges, her commitment, and the high standards she sets for herself. That is why I have no hesitation in recommending her. She is one of those professionals who leaves a lasting impression through her knowledge, but above all through her attitude, her judgment, and the way she makes the people around her feel.

Ana CastilloCommercial Operations Director · Orange Spain

In any project we shared, I have never been more certain that the goals would be achieved.

Read full recommendationClose recommendation

I have been fortunate enough to share two professional experiences with Lourdes. In the first, I found her ability to persuade people to join her initiatives, no matter how complex, truly admirable, as well as her courage to launch intricate digitalization projects and bring solidity and continuity to each one.

During our second experience together, I discovered her ability to adapt to shifting and complex situations, showing a great talent for reaching consensus, solving problems, improving the final product, and making it all look easy. In any project we shared, I have never been more certain that the goals would be achieved. She is an outstanding professional—the kind who makes a real difference through both her knowledge and intelligence, as well as her character.

Patricia SarmientoOnline Sales Expert

One of her greatest strengths is her ability to combine three dimensions that rarely coexist in such perfect balance: business acumen, customer empathy and operational efficiency. Lourdes understands that optimising processes is not simply about reducing costs, but about creating better experiences and driving sustainable growth.

Read full recommendationClose recommendation

Lourdes is an exceptional professional with deep knowledge of the telecommunications industry and extensive experience leading digital transformation.

One of her greatest strengths is her ability to combine three dimensions that rarely coexist in such perfect balance: business acumen, customer empathy and operational efficiency. Lourdes understands that optimising processes is not simply about reducing costs, but about creating better experiences and driving sustainable growth.

She also has a remarkable talent for turning workplaces into environments where people genuinely want to contribute, grow and succeed. Her leadership style is supportive, demanding and inspiring. She is the embodiment of a servant leader: someone who puts her intelligence and experience at the service of her team, develops talent and enables those around her to reach their full potential.

Always focused on results, she never loses sight of the fact that customer and employee satisfaction are among the most powerful drivers of business growth. Working with Lourdes means learning from an outstanding leader while genuinely enjoying the journey.

Chus MartinezDigital Strategy & Sales Director · Orange Spain
05

Perspectives

Ideas from experience

How I think about transformation

Three short perspectives on AI, customer experience and the decisions that turn technology into business value.

01

Innovation & AI

Thirteen Years for an Idea. A Few Weeks to Build It.

Sometimes an idea has to wait for technology to catch up.

In 2013, I wanted to transform the online customer area I led.

My vision was simple: a clean screen with only one question: “How can I help you?” and a box where customers could explain what they needed in their own words.

Read the full article
02

AI & decision design

Bad Decisions, Only Faster

AI can automate a process. It cannot tell us whether that process makes sense.

A doctor requested two tests for me. They needed to take place at the end of August to maintain the correct interval, and both appointments were duly booked for 25 August.

A few days later, one of them was automatically moved to July.

Read the full article
03

Customer experience & trust

The Economics of Trust

Sometimes proving a customer wrong costs more than resolving the problem.

I recently tried a new online supermarket and ordered three steaks.

When the delivery arrived, I could only find two.

Read the full article

Professional conversations

Let's talk

For conversations about senior transformation, customer operations, customer experience, digital growth or strategy-to-execution roles.

Based in LondonUK hybrid or remoteSpanish native · Professional English