Joe Bonilla is a results-driven entrepreneur committed to providing tough, but decisive leadership in communications, startup business, and media. As co-founders of Motor Oil Coffee, Joe Bonilla and Rich Fazio both have a background in running an award-winning creative strategy firm (Relentless), as well as in movie theater exhibition. This combination allows their startup craft coffee company based right here in the Capital Region to not only expand through enhanced promotions, but also focus on delivering a product to consumers that prioritizes speed, quality, and presentation.
They may be similar in those areas, given both were born in Brooklyn, are Geminis, went to UAlbany, and worked in the exhibition industry – but Joe and Rich are appropriately different. Whereas many see Joe’s exploits on social media, traversing the country by plane or bike, Rich wages the daily (and often losing) battle of raising two girls and a boy with his wife Casey. Rich is a fan of the New York Mets, where Joe is all for the Boston Red Sox. Rich, the New York Jets. Joe, the Los Angeles Rams. You get the idea. And most importantly, where Joe is the big picture, big idea person who can be detail-focused but also lofty, Rich is rooted on making the mechanics work behind the scenes both financially and operationally. It’s a winning combination that has worked for more than a decade.
In addition to Joe's leadership with Motor Oil Coffee and Relentless, his talents have also been well-served at CivMix, the City of Albany's Public, Educational, and Government Access Oversight Board, Capital CarShare Inc, and the Troy Prep Charter School. Furthermore, Joe has worked to develop and manage back-office business operations for Jack Carpenter and Taylor Rao, the co-founders of Two Buttons Deep, to help build the brand into the fast-growing media outlet it is today.
Joe was also a regular panelist of WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s nationally syndicated and award-winning news and discussion program The Roundtable, co-host of CivMix’s The Mix podcast with former journalist Liz Benjamin, and hosted “Behind The Buttons” on Two Buttons Deep. He is also a co-founder of Feed Albany, a non-profit charity focused on providing meals to in-need and at-risk individuals in the Capital Region in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Active within the community, Joe serves on the following boards and commissions:
- Secretary and Governance Committee Chair, University at Albany Alumni Association Trustee, Maria College
- Board Member, Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region
- Board Member, Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce
- Board Member, United Way of the Greater Capital Region
- Advisory Board Member, Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy
- Capital Region Board Member, New York League of Conservation Voters
- Board Member, New York Urban Orchards
Joe, a graduate of the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the University at Albany (B.A., Public Policy), has been recognized by:
- City & State Magazine (Albany Rising Stars 2017, Upstate Power 100 2021, Political Consultants Power 75 2021 , PR Power 50 2022)
- Hispanic Coalition of New York (40 Under 40 Latino Rising Stars 2012)
- Albany Business Review (40 Under Forty 2014)
- University at Albany (Thirty Under 30 2014)
- Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy (Young Alumnus in Political Science 2017)
- Albany County Legislature (Beyond the Call 2020)
Joe Bonilla is a CEO You Should Know!