ABOUT US

WHERE IT STARTED

About Commonwealth Counsel, LLC

Joe is the principal and founder of Commonwealth Counsel.

Prior to founding Commonwealth Counsel, Joe was the CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio), where he led efforts to advance Massachusetts’ leadership as the #1 life sciences cluster in the world.  He was responsible for efforts to sustain Massachusetts’ economic competitiveness focusing on issues around infrastructure, workforce, and digital health.  Joe managed federal affairs, as well as state and municipal government relations, and was an outspoken advocate for legislative solutions to ensure patients have affordable access to drugs they need to stay healthy, actions to alleviate the housing and transportation crises, policies and programming to increase diversity and equity in the life sciences workforce, and the regionalization of the industry across the Commonwealth. Joe also brings the lived experience of a patient advocate, having spent months in the NICU with his twin boys, who were born extremely premature, where he witnessed firsthand the benefits of the innovation ecosystem unique to Massachusetts.

Prior to joining MassBio, Joe served as the State Senator for the First Suffolk and Middlesex districts, representing his hometown of Winthrop; the Boston communities of East Boston, North End, Chinatown, Beacon Hill, Bay Village, and South End; the Cambridge neighborhoods of Cambridgeport, Riverside and MIT; and the City of Revere.  While in the State Senate, Joe was the Chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation, Chair of the Senate’s Committee on Personnel and Administration, Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, Vice Chair of Rules, previous vice chair of Healthcare Financing and member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, Senate Ethics Committee, Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets, and the Committee on Financial Services. Joe also served as Senate Chair for the Massachusetts Biotech Caucus, where he advanced legislation to ensure patient access to breakthrough cures and therapies.

Before being elected to the state legislature in 2016, Joe practiced law specializing in criminal law in his private practice and as a public defender with Suffolk Lawyers for Justice.

Boncore earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and government from Providence College in 2004 and received his juris doctorate from the Massachusetts School of Law. Joe resides in Winthrop with his wife Christine and three sons, twins John and Philip, and Dante.