José María Méndez Álvarez-Cedrón       

Born in Lugo, 1966.

José María Méndez has been a member of the Board of Directors, CEO and a member of the Executive Committee at CriteriaCaixa since March 2026. He also holds executive responsibilities in the institutional sphere at the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation.

Mr Méndez holds a degree in Law from the University of Santiago de Compostela and in Political Science and Administration from the Autonomous University of Madrid, having also completed the Senior Management Programme at IESE Business School (University of Navarra). Additionally, José María Méndez is a civil servant currently on leave from the Senior Corps of State Civil Administrators of Spain.

He joined the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA) as Secretary General in 2003. From 1993 to 2003, he held various positions at the Directorate-General for the Treasury and Financial Policy within the Ministry of Economy, serving as Deputy Director General of Financial Policy from 2000 to 2003. Subsequently, he served as  Chief Executive Officer of Cecabank, S.A. and Managing Director of CECA; Vice Chairman of the Board of the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG); Board Member of the World Savings Banks and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI); Vice Chairman of the Foundation of Savings Banks (Funcas); Chairman of the Spanish Centre for Sustainable and Responsible Finance (FINRESP); member of the Management Committee of the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Credit Institutions and Independent Expert on the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB). He also served as Managing Director of CriteriaCaixa from May 2025 to March 2026.

Mr Méndez has been a member of CaixaBank’s Board of Directors since April 2025. He is also an observing member of the Presidents’ Committee, the Board of Directors, and the Social and Philanthropic Council of the World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI) and the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG). In addition, he is a trustee of the Foundation of Banks and Savings Banks of CECA (Funcas), the CEOE Foundation and the CEDE Foundation.