José Garza

José has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago. He also earned an MBA at the university’s Graduate School of Business. He started his career in the investment banking sector, working for Merrill Lynch and then Salomon Brothers - Citigroup, where he focused on European Mergers & Acquisitions. During his 16-year career, he worked on a very broad range of buy-side and sell-side public and private market transactions, including several landmark industry-defining transactions, and worked his way up to the position of Managing Director Head of M&A of Citigroup for CEEMA. In 2008 he moved to Prague, where he became Head of M&A for PPF Group. In EMMA Group, which he joined in 2012, he acted as an Investment Director and Country Head for Greece and Romania, where he originated the OPAP transaction, and where he has grown Premier Energy (in which he was a significant minority shareholder). From this position, he has significantly contributed to all Greek, Romanian and Moldovan acquisitions and their subsequent management. He is currently the CEO and Chairman of the Premier Energy Group. In 2021, he became a partner of EMMA Capital by swapping his stake in Premier Energy for a stake in EMMA Capital.