José Luis García-Palacios Álvarez is a Technical Agricultural Engineer with extensive experience in the agri-food, business and financial sectors, as well as in the economic and social development of Andalusia.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Business Management from the University of Córdoba and has completed several Senior Management programmes at the San Telmo International Institute-IESE, including programmes in Senior Management of Agri-Food Companies, the Agri-Food Supply Chain and Leading Companies. He has also completed executive training programmes at the School of Industrial Organisation (EOI), as well as specialised training in internationalisation, marketing and the governance of credit cooperatives.

His professional career began in the agricultural sector, where, from 1989 to 2012, he was responsible for the technical management of family-owned agricultural and livestock farms, including rainfed and irrigated crops — such as forage crops, citrus fruits, persimmons and blueberries — as well as cattle, acorn-fed Iberian pigs, sheep and Purebred Spanish horses (PRE).

In 1996, he founded Sociedad Cooperativa Andaluza Valle Ancho, dedicated to the marketing of agricultural products and supplies, serving as its president until 2011 and vice-president until 2017. His activity in the cooperative and financial sectors led him to become a board member of Caja Rural de Huelva and, since 2000, a board member and member of the Executive Committee of Caja Rural del Sur, where he subsequently became President of the Governing Board in 2017. He is also a trustee of its Foundation.

He has been extensively involved in business and sectoral representation. He served as vice-president of APROCA Andalucía and ASAJA Huelva and, since 2005, has been President of ASAJA Huelva. Between 2007 and 2019, he chaired SCA SEPROCOOP, a second-tier cooperative providing services to agricultural cooperatives and Agricultural Transformation Companies (SAT) in Andalusia. Since 2006, he has been associated with Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de Huelva, where he served as secretary until 2021.

Within the agri-food sector, he has played a prominent role in defending and promoting strategic sectors in Andalusia. In 2006, he founded the Andalusian Interprofessional Association of Red Fruits (INTERFRESA), whose presidency he resumed in 2016. In 2007, he founded and chaired FORO ENCINAL, an association dedicated to the protection and conservation of the dehesa ecosystem, which brought together more than 50 associations and organisations from Spain and Portugal. He also served as vice-president of SCA Cereales Sevilla, a second-tier organisation dedicated to the marketing of agricultural products.

Since 2015, he has chaired the Federation of Entrepreneurs of Huelva (FOE), and until December 2024 he also chaired its Foundation for Business Development. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Andalusia (CEA) and, since May 2025, Vice-President of the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CEPYME).

In the technology and financial sectors, he has chaired Rural Servicios Informáticos (RSI) since 2017, a company that provides technology services to the entities of the Caja Rural Group and develops IT tools and systems for the financial sector. He has also held responsibilities as a board member and chief executive officer in various Andalusian agro-industrial companies.

Since January 2020, he has chaired the Social Council of the University of Huelva. He is also a member of the Doñana 21 Foundation, a founding member of the Andalusian Academy of Gastronomy and Tourism and, since 2023, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Princess of Asturias Foundation. In 2026, he became a Full Member of the Academy of Social and Environmental Sciences of Andalusia.

His institutional career includes extensive participation in national and European congresses, conferences and forums, as well as representing productive sectors before regional parliaments, the Spanish Congress and Senate, and the European Parliament. Among his initiatives, he promoted the establishment of the Dehesa Committee in the Spanish Senate, which operated between 2009 and 2010, and participated in promoting the Andalusian Dehesa Law and the Iberian Pig Quality Standard.

He is the author of numerous opinion articles on agriculture, business and civil society, and has participated as editor and co-author in scientific and technical publications in the fields of agroforestry and livestock farming.

Throughout his career, he has received numerous distinctions, including the Medal of the City of Huelva (2013), the Andalusian Executive of the Year Award (2019), the Talent Award from Club TALENTO and CROWE Spain (2022), the Huelva Medal for Economic Achievement (2024), and the Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility Award granted by CEA and the Cajasol Foundation (2025). He has also received several institutional distinctions, including the Grand Cross with White Distinction of the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard, the Cross of Military Merit with White Distinction, and the Grand Cross with White Distinction of the National Police.