Alberto Baselga Fernández de Piérola
CPO/CIO — PE-backed value creation through M&A integration and AI in production at scale
I build and scale Product, Engineering, Data/AI and Security organizations that translate strategy into measurable P&L outcomes: margin expansion, EBITDA contribution uplift, efficiency at scale, and reduced operational risk.
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Summary
CPO/CIO with P&L results across the private equity ownership cycle: post-merger integration of 6 acquired brands and a ~20% gross margin / EBITDA contribution uplift at a PE-backed education platform, and a seat on the sell-side due diligence team for CoverWallet's exit to Aon (NYSE: AON). After the sale, I ran the technology integration with the buyer — consolidating systems, cutting vendor costs ~25% and helping a VC-backed startup and a global enterprise work as one company.
Today I'm CPO/CIO at Northius, an Investindustrial portfolio company. I sit on the Executive Committee with direct board reporting, and I run technology against the sponsor's value creation plan: EBITDA growth and cash discipline.
I build and grow Product, Engineering, Data, AI and Security organizations where technology earns its place in the P&L. Over the last three years that has meant growing Technology's P&L contribution ~50% YoY, with tight financial governance, managing every investment to pay back within the hold period.
The other half of my work is AI value creation — in production, at scale, with real P&L impact: • AI-driven efficiency and AI products working through the whole funnel: marketing, sales, operations, service quality and the learning product • Agentic AI systems that change how core workflows actually run — leading our AI transformation toward an agentic enterprise • A data platform built so that both people and AI agents can use it, plus AI-powered monitoring for real-time decisions • Generative AI (GenAI) and applied AI shipped with measurable business outcomes — not pilots
My footprint is global by default: a PE-backed buy-and-build group spanning Spain, Portugal and LATAM, and a VC-backed scale-up headquartered in New York running 24/7 follow-the-sun teams across EMEA, the Americas and APAC. I have built organizations from 0 to ~60 directly (supporting scale-up to ~300), reporting to the CEO — teams with real leadership depth that ship predictably.
Always happy to talk about technology and AI value creation in PE-backed and high-growth companies.
What you can expect from me:
- Deliver M&A value across the deal lifecycle: post-merger integration (6 brands, one platform), sell-side due diligence for a sale to a strategic buyer (Aon), and capturing value after the deal closes
- Turn Technology from a cost center into an EBITDA lever, aligned to the sponsor's value creation plan — I helped drive a ~20% gross margin / EBITDA contribution uplift at Northius and a ~25% vendor cost reduction at CoverWallet
- Put AI into production at scale with real business impact: AI-driven efficiency, AI products and agentic AI systems redesigning core workflows — driving the AI transformation toward an agentic enterprise
- Stand up data strategy where none exists — a scalable data platform, governance and KPI systems that improve decision-making and commercial efficiency
- Build and scale international, multi-timezone organizations (from 0 to ~60 directly; supporting scale-up to ~300) across Spain, Portugal, LATAM, the US and APAC, with strong leadership teams and predictable delivery
- Lead cybersecurity as a business enabler at Executive Committee and board level: security master plans, implementation programs and post-acquisition security integration that protect the company and its data
Experience
Northius
May 2023 – PresentChief Product Officer & Chief Information Officer (CPO/CIO)
Northius is an Investindustrial portfolio company — a private equity-backed, buy-and-build education group across Spain, Portugal and LATAM. I report to the CEO, sit on the Executive Committee with direct board reporting, and lead Product, Engineering, Data, AI and Security.
- •Built from scratch and scaled a ~60-person organization (Product, Engineering, Data, AI, Security) across Spain, Portugal and LATAM, with its own leadership bench and a single operating cadence
- •Led the post-merger integration of 6 acquired brands onto one product, technology and data platform — the backbone of the group's buy-and-build strategy
- •Helped drive a ~20% gross margin / EBITDA contribution uplift and ~50% YoY growth in Technology's P&L contribution over three years through portfolio management, insourcing and financial governance, in line with the sponsor's value creation plan
- •Built the group's first data strategy: a scalable data platform ready for AI and agents, with data governance and regular KPI reporting — full-funnel visibility in ~2 years and sharper marketing and sales investment decisions
- •Embedded AI (Generative AI + applied AI) across the full funnel — operational efficiency, AI products and better service quality, live in production throughout the business
- •Leading the company's AI transformation toward an agentic enterprise: agentic AI systems redesigning core operating workflows end-to-end, plus AI-powered enterprise monitoring
- •Set the group's cybersecurity strategy through a group-wide security master plan and the implementation program now delivering it — raising security posture to modern enterprise standards and protecting company and student data
CoverWallet, an Aon Company
Aug 2020 – May 2023Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- •Led the post-acquisition technology integration of CoverWallet into Aon, one of the world's largest insurance brokers — merging systems and aligning two very different cultures into one company
- •Owned the full technology budget, strategy and execution, partnering with business and product leaders on growth and efficiency priorities
- •Reduced vendor costs ~25% through supplier rationalization and operating-model redesign — direct cost synergies delivered during the integration
- •Integrated CoverWallet's cybersecurity measures into Aon's enterprise security framework after the acquisition — bringing our security posture up to global-enterprise standards and protecting company and customer data
- •Ran a global, 24/7 follow-the-sun technology organization across EMEA (Spain, Poland, Ukraine), the Americas and APAC (Singapore) — multi-timezone teams working to one shared operating rhythm
- •Reduced incident recovery time (MTTR) ~30% and improved engineering productivity through better reliability tooling, automation and standardization
CoverWallet
May 2018 – Jul 2020Head of Information Services | Director
- •Built and led the Information Services function from 0 to ~40 people (cloud, DevOps, security, data) at a hyper-growth, VC-backed, NYC-headquartered insurtech
- •Served as part of the sell-side due diligence team for the sale of the company to Aon (closed in early 2020), getting our infrastructure, security and operations ready for buyer diligence
- •Supported the scale-up of the technology organization to ~300 by establishing the cloud operations, delivery standards and security foundations that improved throughput and reliability
- •Partnered with Product to build and scale back-office capabilities for our own agents and for partner channels, including Salesforce CRM integration and workflow design
Earlier Career
Technical Account Manager
Amazon Web Services
Sept 2017 – Mar 2018
Team Leader & SRE Principal Engineer
Tuenti (Telefónica)
Jan 2017 – Sept 2017
Technical Leader
Telefónica Research & Development
Jan 2015 – Jan 2017
Senior Service Reliability Engineer (SRE)
Telefónica Research & Development
Dec 2013 – Jan 2015
Technical Service Manager
Telefónica Research & Development
Sep 2012 – Dec 2013
Featured
Entrevista a Ángeles Caballero (CISO HQ, Santander) — «La IA te puede ayudar muchísimo, pero el criterio y las decisiones siempre las pondrás tú»
Agentforce World Tour Madrid — Closing keynote
Nova Talent — The future of Tech Talent in the AI era
La IA cambia las reglas, permite personalizar a gran escala
Northius avanza en su transformación digital con Salesforce como aliado clave
Northius evoluciona hacia un modelo de organización tecnológica, escalable y centrada en el alumno
Ya no hay vuelta atrás — la estrategia empresarial en la era post-IA
Advisory & Board Roles
Product & Tech Advisor
The Lab Ventures
Sep 2020 – Dec 2024
Strategic advisory on product-led growth and technology scalability for an early-stage venture studio
Advisor
Qlip (Zenova)
Sep 2020 – Jan 2024
Advised on technology and product strategy as the SaaS platform scaled
Advisor
Club Clínico (Cliniclic)
Jun 2021 – Dec 2024
Technology & product strategy advisory for a growth-stage e-commerce startup
EMBAssador | Scout
IESE Business School
Sept 2021 – Sept 2024
Executive MBA ambassador and talent scout for the business school
Education
Executive MBA, Business Administration and Management
IESE Business School(2018 - 2020)
Certificate in Strategy Execution
Harvard Business School Online(2022)
Grado en Ingeniería Informática, Computer Engineering
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid(2009 - 2010)
Ingeniero Técnico en Informática de Gestión
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid(2006 - 2010)
Contact
For executive roles, board conversations or speaking invitations, the fastest way to reach me is email or LinkedIn.
© 2026 Alberto Baselga