José Quinta was born on April 20, 1950 in Leiria, where he lived until he finished commercial school. He is married and has two children. He attended the Instituto Comercial de Lisboa, Secção Preparatória, and entered the Institute of Economics and attended the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He did mandatory military service from 1971 to August 1974, spending the last two years in Guinea.
He graduated in Economics in 1977. He worked at the National Statistics Institute, in the Computer Services Department, at Portucel - Empresa de Celuloses e Papel de Portugal, E.P., in charge of the Data Processing Center, at Tudor - Sociedade Portuguesa do Acumulador Tudor, S. A., as the administrative and financial manager of the Castanheira do Ribatejo Industrial Units. In 1982, he joined Pingo Doce, where he worked in the financial area, later moving to Recheio Cash & Carry, S. A., and was controller of the JMR Group. He is currently chairman of Uniarme.