A veteran communications strategist and pubic affairs advocate, Jose helps corporations, trade associations, public agencies, and nonprofits influence public policy outcomes and protect their reputations during times of crisis and transition.
With a career spanning four decades, Jose has been at the center of dozens of high-profile ballot measure, legislative and regulatory battles in California on workplace, natural resources, land use, energy, healthcare, insurance, and public finance issues. He has been an adviser to statewide office holders, government agencies, trade associations and coalitions, as well as foundations and nonprofit organizations.
Jose served in leadership roles to reform California’s workers’ compensation system, amend the California Endangered Species Act, form the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, create five flood control assessment districts, modernize Sacramento’s convention center, and secure entitlements and bond funds for major mixed-use developments.
Jose was an executive director of APCO Worldwide and served as the managing director of its Sacramento office for two decades. Before joining APCO, he was a partner for six years in one of the state’s top political consulting and public affairs firms. In the 1980s, he was a lobbyist in the State Capitol and practiced law with a firm specializing in bankruptcy law and civil litigation. His career began in 1976 as a Fellow assigned to the state Senate’s labor and employment committee, where he subsequently worked as an associate consultant.
In 2019, Sacramento Magazine named Jose one of the 300 most powerful business leaders in Metropolitan Sacramento. The magazine also named him among the 100 most powerful and influential people in the Sacramento region in 2008, describing him as “the power behind state and local power for more than three decades.” In 2007, he also was recognized as “Public Affairs Executive of the Year” by PR News, the industry’s leading national publication.
Jose earned his Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College, where he was recognized with distinction in the government department. He went on to obtain a Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, where he won top honors for Moot Court Competition. After being admitted to the State Bar of California, he received a certificate in trial and appellate advocacy from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Jose is a senior fellow of the Mt. Valley Chapter of the American Leadership Forum. He has served on the board of directors for Sierra Health Foundation since 2004 and currently serves on the Dean’s Cabinet for McGeorge School of Law. He also has served on numerous boards for such organizations as Valley Vision, Umpqua Bank/Holdings Corporation, Capital Public Radio, and United Way (California Capital Region).
