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. He was Commissioner General of the 1992 Universal Exposition of Seville (Expo '92) from 1984 to 1991. Olivencia said that a major problem in putting on the event was the amount of time to prepare. On 19 April 1990 terrorist group ETA sent him a letter bomb, but exploded before in the hands of an Expo's civil servant.