George Penacolas

    

George Penacolas
Leader of the Clark Christian Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office January 8, 2021
Preceded by	Ethan Ojeda
Member of the Clark Provincial Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office December 16, 2022
Preceded by	James White
Constituency	Atlas 1
Personal details
Born	(1950-05-16) May 16, 1950 Atlas City, Clark, Sierra, Kingdom of Sierra
Political party	Christian Democratic (2020–present)
Other political affiliations	Royalist (1972–2020)
Spouse(s)	Maria Ruiz-Tagle (m. 1977)
Children	5
Education	University of Sierra, Las Vegas

George Eduardo Penacolas (born May 16, 1950) is a Sierran businessman, political consultant and politician who is currently serving as a member of the Clark Provincial Assembly for Atlas 1 (Clark's 37th assembly district) since 2022 and has served as leader of the Clark Christian Democratic Party since 2021. He is a former member of the Royalist Party and has been a supporter of the conservative movement in the Kingdom of Sierra, having personally donated $2.5 million to conservative political organizations, campaigns, and causes since 2015 before he would formally enter politics in four years later.

A native to Clark, Penacolas was born in Atlas City and is the son of Andean immigrants who moved to Sierra in 1947 from then-Gran Colombia. He would not get involved politically until 1972 when he formally joined the Royalist Party while at college, but was not a committed voter until 1979 after he had graduated. He worked in his father's local business in Atlas City before he joined Albion in 1983 to aid the family after they began struggling financially. Initially signing on as an accountant, his involvement in Albion would see him rise through the corporate ranks and amass a personal fortune, eventually being a member of Albion's board of directors and has a net worth of $18 million as of 2023.

Pencolas began developing interest in national politics in 2012 when Daniel McComb was first first elected Leader of the Royalist Party and succeeded Evan Hutchison. Pencalos supported McComb and donated $1,400 to his leadership campaign and attended the 2012 Royalist National Convention in Phoenix, Maricopa where McComb was formally declared the winner and sworn in as the next Leader of the Royalist Party and Leader of the Opposition by extension. Starting in 2015, Pencolas became an active and recurring donar to conservative candidates, political parties, organizations, and causes in Sierra even donating to the Anglo-American Conservative Union in support of the annual Conservative Action and Policy Summit, attending any CAPS events held in Sierra.

Pencolas would become a staunch supporter of Nemesis Heartwell after she became prime minister in 2017 followng McComb's resignation admist major sex abuse allegations. He would become a self-identified Heartwellian Royalist and supported her throughout her entire premiership. After Heartwell resigned in 2020 following the Royalist defeat in the 2020 Sierran federal election, he would endorse Camden Robinson for the party leadership race in December due to him being more in-line with Heartwell's right-populist and nationalist ideology and rhetoric. In 2021, Pencolas would join the Christian Democrats in protest of the new more moderate direction taken by the Royalist Party under Kenneth O'Conner.

In 2021, he ran for the position of Leader of the Clark Christian Democratic Party against Ethan Ojeda after a vote of no confidence passed the party's committee, triggering a snap election. Ojeda ran as an establishment center right candidate in line with the party's mainstream faction and leadership while Pencolas ran as a right-wing populist and national conservative inline with that of Heartwell and McComb. Pencolas won the race by a close margin of 3.2% and was sworn in on January 8. Between 2021 and 2022, he restructured the party and began to aggressively campaign for the party in preparation for the next provincial election and shifted the party to the right. During the 2022 Clark general election, the Christian Democrats won ten seats, the largest in its history and the first seats they had won in a decade, with Pencolas himself being elected to Atlas 1.