José Luís Clemente Quinta was born on 20th April, 1950, in Leiria, where he lived until finishing Escola Comercial. He is married with two children. He attended the Instituto Comercial de Lisboa, Preparatory Section, before entering the Instituto Superior de Economia and attending the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He did his military service from 1971 to August 1974, with the last two years spent in Guinea Bissau. He graduated in Economics in 1977. He has worked at the Instituto Nacional de Estatística, at Direcção dos Serviços de Informática, at Portucel – Empresa de Celuloses e Papel de Portugal, E.P., he was head of the Data Processing Centre at Tudor – Sociedade Portuguesa do Acumulador Tudor, S. A., and he was also head of administration and finance for Unidades Industriais de Castanheira do Ribatejo. In 1982, he joined the supermarket chain Pingo Doce, where he worked in finance, later moving to Recheio Cash & Carry, S. A. He was controller for Grupo JMR. He is currently president of Uniarme.