John Emmanuel Cortes is an ecologist, zoologist, Justice of the Peace and Gibraltarian MP, member of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party.

[1] In 1976, he became the first General Secretary of the Gibraltar Ornithological & Natural History Society (GONHS), and since 1991, Director of the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens, positions he held until taking government office in 2011.

[2] Between 1983 and 1991, he was also a civil servant, having reached the post of General Manager of the Gibraltar Health Authority.

[2] In December 2011, with his election to the Gibraltar Parliament, Cortes resigned from all his other public duties,[3] and was appointed Minister of Health and Environment by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.

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