Manuel Olivencia Ruiz (25 July 1929 – 1 January 2018) was a Spanish lawyer with a career as a professor, economist, and diplomat.

[6] He was Undersecretary of Education and Science during the first Transition government, advisor to the Bank of Spain, and a member of the board of RTVE.

[8] On 19 April 1990 terrorist group ETA sent him a letter bomb, but exploded before in the hands of an Expo's civil servant.

[9] He received the Creu de Sant Jordi Award for his work on Expo '92 and joined the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation in 2005.

[10] Juan Ignacio Zoido awarded Olivencia with a Plaza de España "for a life dedicated to public service" in December 2017.