Boston Consulting Group Appoints Pablo Martinez to Head the Firm’s Middle East Region

Pablo Martinez to take over from Joerg Hildebrandt who led the Middle East System for the last eleven years, bringing together local knowledge, global industry expertise, and deep capabilities to empower, inform, and create impact – grounding the firm as a regional thought leader and an integral part of the Middle East’s development story.

Riyadh,gulftech— Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world’s leading management consulting firms, has named Pablo Martinez to head its Middle East system starting May 2022.

Martinez will lead almost 800 employees from 76 nationalities across four offices located in: Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, making this region one of the firm’s most diverse systems. The firm has seen strong growth in the region, driven by increased demand for digital transformation.

Martinez is a global citizen who has worked with clients all over the Middle East and Europe. In 2002, he joined BCG in Iberia, where he supported the development of the firm’s European consumer and airline clients. Nine years ago, he transferred to the Middle East to launch its Consumer practice, focused on travel and tourism. Martinez has since built a strong practice with an excellent team and leading clients in the public and private sectors across UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.  

Commenting on Martinez’ appointment, Matthias Tauber, Regional Chair Europe, Middle East, South America & Africa, BCG, said: “We recognize that driving value in the region must be done in parallel to accelerating climate goals – and BCG is uniquely positioned to connect disparate efforts on climate across functions, companies, industries and economies. We bring together deep expertise and cutting-edge applications backed by AI to measure emissions exhaustively, accurately and frequently. AI success depends on recognizing the 10-20-70 rule, which says that unlocking value means focusing 10% of effort and resources on building new algorithms, 20% on the underlying technology platforms, and 70% on investments in people, processes, and the transformation of the organization – and Pablo’s expertise in the region across the supply chain is inherent to stimulating that change from an end-to-end approach.”

“Opening a new chapter of leading BCG Middle East is a very exciting step and I look forward to driving BCG’s agenda in the region. I am committed to our people and clients and hope to shape the future of BCG Middle East in a fulfilling and sustainable way,” said Martinez.

Climate is a priority topic across all industries, functions, and regions at BCG and the firm is investing $400M on the topic. Last year BCG doubled the number of climate and sustainability cases delivered to clients and launched several new technology products and joined groundbreaking partnerships to address measurement challenges. More recently, BCG launched an AI solution to help organizations measure, simulate, reduce and track their environmental footprint at scale—and to collaborate across the supply chain.

Martinez has worked extensively with travel and tourism clients on projects related to strategy, network development, fleet design, cost optimization, commercial development, and program management office, addressing fundamental strategic, operational, social, and cultural challenges along the way. In addition to his client work, he has also been the People Chair for the Middle East system for the last five years. He harnessed his expertise across the fundamentals of people strategy—leadership, culture, talent, reskilling, and HR—so that companies can emerge stronger, more agile, more innovative, and better able to respond to an ever-changing environment.

Martinez will be taking over the role from Joerg Hildebrandt, who had led the system since 2011. During Hildebrandt’s tenure, he brought together local knowledge, global industry expertise, and deep capabilities to empower, inform, and create impact – grounding the firm as a regional thought leader and an integral part of the Middle East’s development story.  

Hildebrandt will now assume the position of BCG Middle East Chair.  “I’ve been fortunate to work with Pablo for over a decade and had the opportunity to see him drive outstanding growth, spearheading unique initiatives for the region in the public and private sectors, and driving forward our people initiatives. He has led the travel and tourism and consumer segments to new levels of innovation, growth, and expanding market share,” said Hildebrandt. “What stands out most for me is Pablo’s deep passion for BCG—his commitment to our people, his drive to empower the next generation and his unwavering integrity,” He added.

Prior to joining BCG, Martinez worked for SENER as a development engineer, creating control systems in collaboration with one of the world’s leading aeronautic engine manufacturers. He also worked as a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Martinez holds a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.