James Garbarino


About

James Garbarino, known to most as Jimmy, was born and raised in Gibraltar during the complex closed frontier era. With a love of the outdoors and a burning desire to travel, at the age of 18 Jimmy was torn between his interest in architecture and a direct path from the Gibraltar Grammar School to university or the active calling of the army.

This difficult decision was made for him when he successfully completed the selection process for Sandhurst and a career as a Captain of the Royal Artillery called him. Jimmy remained in active service for 12 years during which time he was posted in the UK, Germany and Oman. The latter posting came about when Jimmy was asked to accept a secondment to the Sultan of Oman. A rapid learning course in Arabic followed and then the formidable task of training the Omani forces on their home soil began. It remains as one of the most challenging, engrossing and rewarding times in Jimmy’s career.

In 1985 the border reopened between Gibraltar and Spain, and this meant that the time was right for Jimmy to return home to start a new chapter with his wife and young family. On arriving back in Gibraltar, Jimmy initially worked for his family business, but before long he was asked by Nigel Pardo to join the team working on one of the first of the affordable housing scheme projects as an technical operations manager. This role expanded substantially as the company progressed and in 2008 Jimmy took over as Managing Director of Montagu Group.

In addition to this role, Jimmy has been proud to serve Gibraltar in the capacity of a Justice of the Peace since 2000 and also dedicates time to several charitable trusts in as a board director.