José María Ormaetxea Uribeetxebarría (Mondragón, Gipuzkoa; 23 December 1926 – 20 July 2019) was a Basque businessman and cooperativist; one of the five founders in 1956 of Ulgor - later renamed Fagor Electrodomésticos - the first industrial cooperative enterprise of the Mondragon Corporation.

[3] In the summer months of 1965 and 1966, together with other cooperative managers, he took part in special courses in Business Science, taught by lecturers from the Sarriko Faculty of the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao.

Arizmendiarrieta took care of the technical knowledge of the founders and their human, moral and spiritual education, and Ormaetxea developed firm convictions of service to the community.

[6] From the Business Division of Laboral Kutxa, he was a pioneer in the entrepreneurial vision, practices and management models that he applied to small cooperatives in their first steps, many years ahead of their application in Basque companies.

Due to their talent and work capacity, people could have achieved high levels of personal wealth, but who placed their know-how at the service of the community and the development of our cooperative model".

[3] From the management of Laboral Kutxa, he made his most significant contribution to the Basque cooperative movement, getting involved in the creation of the Business Division of the savings bank.

Under his leadership, he was the financial and management tool that made possible the impressive growth of the business group that would become the most important in the Basque Country and a world reference in the social economy.