José Núñez Iglesias

José Núñez Iglesias (19 March 1897 – 9 December 1984) was a Spanish diplomat and trade official.

Biography

Núñez was born in 1897 and joined the diplomatic career in 1929, In October 1936, while still serving at the consulate, he was dismissed and expelled from the diplomatic corps by the Republican government, but would be reinstated by the rebel faction, which two years later appointed him second-class commercial attaché. In July 1939, reinstated in his position as second-class embassy secretary, he was appointed commercial attaché at the Embassy of Spain, Washington, D.C. In 1942 he was promoted to first-class commercial attaché and in 1945 he returned to Spain.

In Spain, he was appointed chief of staff to the Under-Secretary of Industry and, after serving ad interim for a few months,

At the same time, he continued to rise in the diplomatic career and in July 1950 he was appointed as director-general for Economic Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At this time, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit.

In mid-1954 he was granted his first head of mission, being appointed ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, but was quickly called back to Spain to take over as Under-Secretary for Foreign Economy. After leaving this post at the end of 1957, he was appointed head of the Permanent Mission of Spain to the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), and later to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), serving until 1964, when he was ordered to replace the Count of Casa Miranda as ambassador of Spain in Belgium —with concurrence in Luxembourg — and to the European Communities. In 1962 he had been rewarded with the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.

He left his diplomatic roles in mid-1967, when he reached the age of 70. After this, he was rewarded with a position on the Council of State, serving until 1972.

He died in Madrid on December 9, 1984.