Kit Cooper, Chief Executive Officer

Kit Cooper is the chief executive officer of Granada Corp. Kit oversees client services, employee development and labor market analysis.  He interfaces with all clients from the sales process to project launches to ongoing account management.

Cooper has been doing business internationally since 1999 when he co-founded Hispanic Teleservices Corporation (HTC), a customer service outsourcing company with nearshore operations in Monterrey and Guadalajara, Mexico. HTC was one of the first customer service outsourcing companies in the world to capitalize on offshore markets and the first to target the U.S. Hispanic market through operations based in Latin America. The company raised venture capital from JP Morgan Partners and Citicorp Venture Capital and employed over 1,500 employees at the time of it sale to The Carlyle Group in 2005 and over 3,000 employees at the time of its sale to Teleperformance Group in 2007.

In 2005, Kit received Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in recognition of his company’s achievements. While at HTC, Kit served as president and co-chairman and managed sales and client services, helping the company acquire Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, telecommunications, cable and technology industries.

He is also the founder and executive director of The Quality of Life Project, a 501c3 whose mission is to help people live more enjoyable, purposeful and contented lives. The organization conducts in depth interviews with individuals that are successful in the many aspects of life and then shares the findings through its website, social media and offline community gatherings. Interviewees include well-known folks like Richard Branson, Jacqueline Novogratz and Gary Player to lesser-known but equally interesting and successful individuals.

Kit’s passion for the Spanish-speaking world began in 1993 when he lived in Granada, Spain. He is fluent in Spanish and has over ten years experience in the Hispanic CRM space.

He received a BA in History from UCLA and a MBA from Georgetown University. He is passionate about the subject of entrepreneurship and work/life balance has guest lectured on these issues at national conferences such as South by Southwest and MBA programs including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine and Rice University.

Kit’s greatest passion is his family and spends as much time as possible with his wife Misha and kids Levi, Gemma and Gus.

Carlos Zapatero, President

Carlos Zapatero serves as president of Granada Corp and oversees corporate development and growth strategy for the company.

Prior to Granada, Carlos served as Senior Vice President of Sales at Teleperformance Group, the largest customer support outsourcer in the world. While at Teleperformance, Carlos was instrumental in growing the company’s Hispanic market operations within the nearshore region as well as launching one of the industry’s most successful utilities services practices.

Before Teleperformance, Carlos was an early employee and executive at Hispanic Teleservices Corporation, where he was responsible for business development.  He also worked at American Express where he managed sales of over $45 million throughout his tenure with the company.

Carlos grew up in Lima, Peru but now calls Houston, Texas home.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.

Jim Farnsworth, Operating Partner

Jim is one of the customer support industry’s foremost experts in WFH. He is the co-founder and senior partner of Virtualwirks, a firm specializing in helping organizations implement their virtual workforce capabilities.

Before starting virtualwirks, Jim was the general manager who built from scratch and led the success of the @Home business unit for TeleTech, one of the world’s largest BPO companies. Prior to Teletech, Jim served as COO at Alpine Access, one of the pioneering firms in the WFH customer support market. These roles complement his leadership experience at MCI Telecommunications, ADT Security Services and in the Federal and local government sector.

Jim Farnsworth has a demonstrated history of providing broad general business leadership for large-scale businesses and their customers. He does this in diverse industries including telecommunications, technology, finance, retail, health care, real estate and general business services. Additionally, Jim has successful experience selling and working in outsourced and contracting arrangements with clients ranging from small business owners to Fortune 100 C-level executives around the world.

Farnsworth is bilingual and holds a B.A. in International Relations and Business from the University of New Mexico.