Juan Manuel Sinde was born in 1950 in Bilbao. He studied Industrial Engineering. at the University of the Basque Country.
After a short career in a bank in Madrid, as Investment Analyst, he joined Caja Laboral (the cooperative bank of the Mondragon Group) in 1975.
He has been serving Caja Laboral for 35 years in different positions, all of them related to retail banking business: from 1990 until he retired in 2011. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Caja Laboral. Besides that, he was a member of the Board of Directors at Lagun Aro Insurance Co. for more than 25 years. Also a member of the Board of VISA Spain for more than 10 years.
In the last 4 years before he retired, he was the chairman of Fundación Gaztempresa, focused in helping young people to promote their own business.
At Corporative level, he was a member of the Board of MONDRAGON Foundation for ten years and a member of the Board of MONDRAGON Corporation and of MONDRAGON Investment for 2 years.
Since he retired, he has been deeply involved in different institutions that seek to promote humanistic values in limited companies and in the society of the Basque Country in general.
Now he is the president of Arizmendiarrieta Christian Foundation, a catholic organization that is working to promote an Economy of Cooperation and an Inclusive and participatory more ethical company model, inspired in the cooperative values and in the Catholic Church Social Teaching.
On the other hand, he is the Secretary of the Committee for the Cause for canonisation of Fr. Arizmendiarrieta, now Venerable because of the decision of Pope Francis in 2015.
He usually publishes articles about economy and management in local newspapers and magazines, promoting an humanistic economic approach, seeking to impulse the competitiveness of companies and regions with the participation of employees and a culture of open information and cooperation between the different stakeholders of the companies.
