Press release
The firm adds close to a decade of M&A, Real Estate and Restructuring experience across Spain and Mexico to strengthen its support for boards and leadership teams.
Madrid, 3 October 2026. Zavala Civitas, the executive search and organisational consulting firm founded in 1971, announces the appointment of Cosme Zavala Gancedo as Principal.
With close to a decade of experience in M&A, Real Estate and Restructuring across Spain and Mexico, Cosme brings a financial and transactional perspective that strengthens the firm’s ability to support boards and leadership teams in search, assessment and advisory mandates.
Board-level restructuring experience
He joins from a real estate trust backed by Grupo Financiero Banorte, where he served as Strategic & Financial Advisory Manager to the Office of the Trust. He advised the board on the trust’s restructuring, leading negotiations to align stakeholders around a simplified ownership and governance structure, and co-led the land monetisation strategy.
Capital Markets at Savills, Mexico City
Previously, from 2022 to 2025, he was part of the Capital Markets team at Savills in Mexico City. In a front-office role, he executed sell-side mandates for office, industrial and logistics portfolios and assets, managing relationships with domestic and international institutional and private investors, and coordinating the financial analysis and legal documentation of each transaction.
8 Class A assets · ~200,000 sqm
Notable transactions include advising on the sale of a logistics portfolio in Mexico City’s core logistics market.
Corporate finance foundations in Madrid
He began his career in Madrid, where he spent more than five years as a Corporate Finance Associate at KPMG Spain, working on M&A processes, financial modelling and business planning. Before that, he gained investment banking experience at Arcano.
Education
- Degree in International Business Administration (E4), Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE)
- International Business Management, Lancaster University (United Kingdom)
- Coursework in Alternative Investments, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
A transatlantic perspective
His experience on both sides of the Atlantic, together with his first-hand understanding of how decisions are made in boardrooms and investment processes, aligns with Zavala Civitas’ international focus and its activity across the Americas.
About Zavala Civitas
Zavala Civitas is an executive search and organisational consulting firm headquartered in Madrid, founded in 1971. With offices in Madrid, Shanghai, Toronto and São Paulo, the firm operates across EMEA, APAC and the Americas, offering Executive Search, Assessment and Development, and Board Advisory services, with a documented 92% closing rate.
