Jerónimo Saavedra Acevedo is a Spanish PSOE politician who was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on July 3rd 1936. After heading the autonomous community of the Canary Islands from 1983 to 1987 and from 1991 to 1993, he joined the Spanish Government in Madrid as the Minister of Public Administrations (1993-1995) and the Minister of Education and Sciences (1995-1996). After gaining an absolute majority for his party in the 2007 local elections he became the mayor of his home city on Gran Canaria, bringing an eight-year rule of his conservative People's Party predecessors José Manuel Soria and Josefa Luzardo to its end.

Saavedra used to teach at Canarian universities and holds a doctor degree in law and a diploma in company administration.