Honorific-Prefix: | The Most Excellent |
Jaime Alfonsín | |
Order: | Private Secretary to the King |
Term Start: | 23 June 2014 |
Term End: | 19 February 2024 |
Predecessor: | Rafael Spottorno |
Successor: | Camilo Villarino |
Birth Date: | 18 August 1956 |
Birth Place: | Lugo, Spain |
Nationality: | Spanish |
Alma Mater: | Autonomous University of Madrid |
Spouse: | Natalia Uranga |
Children: | 2 |
Profession: | State lawyer, courtier |
Jaime Alfonsín Alfonso (born 18 August 1956) is a Spanish state lawyer. Alfonsín served King Felipe VI for 30 years, first as Private Secretary to the Prince of Asturias from 1995 to 2014 and later as Private Secretary to the King from 2014 to 2024.
Jaime Alfonsín Alfonso was born in Lugo in 1956.[1] He graduated in law by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 1978, with the extraordinary prize of his promotion.[2]
In 1980, he joined the State Lawyers Corps. He started to work in the provincial offices of the Spanish Treasury of Teruel and Cuenca, and later worked for the Ministry of the Presidency, the Supreme Court and in the Legal Service of the European Commission.
On 10 September 1982, he was appointed Director-General for Cooperation with Regional Regimes by Luis Cosculluela, minister for Territorial Administration.[3] He was dismissed in late 1982, when Cosculluela left the ministerial office.
From 1984 to 1992, he has secretary-general and chief of the legal service of Barclays and, from 1992 to 1995, he worked as a lawyer in the Uría Menéndez law firm.
In December 1995, he joined the Royal Household and served as Private Secretary to the Prince of Asturias, Felipe. During this time, he supervised José Manuel de Zuleta y Alejandro, 14th duke of Abrantes, who served, unofficially, as private secretary to Princess Letizia.
When Felipe ascended the throne in June 2014, Alfonsín and Zuleta were promoted to private secretaries of the monarchs. Alfonsín was appointed as Head of the Royal Household.[4]
Alfonsín has also been a professor of European Union Law at ICADE and was a professor of Tax Law at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
In January 2024, the Royal Household announced that Alfonsin would be replaced by diplomat Camilo Villarino as Head of the Royal Household and that he would be named private counselor of the King.[5]
Alfonsín is married to Natalia Uranga, a lawyer that he met at the Uría Méndez law firm. They have two daughters.