President Jay Gonzalez

Jay Gonzalez is the president of Curry College. Gonzalez has a deep breadth of experience in the law, government, education, politics, advocacy, and business leadership.  He is the 15th president of Curry and is the first Hispanic leader of the College.

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Most recently, Gonzalez served as a partner at Hinckley Allen, where his primary practice was representing cities, towns, and other governmental entities in financing and developing capital projects and other governmental programs. His work included providing legal and strategic advice to the Massachusetts State College Building Authority in connection with its financing of projects at the state university and community college campuses and to the City of Salem in connection with the development of its port to serve as a terminal for offshore wind development.

Listen: President Jay Gonzalez Speaks with WATD-FM’s Rob Hakala ‘96 and South Shore Chamber President and CEO, Peter Forman

Gonzalez began his career as a public finance lawyer and eventually became a partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge (now Locke Lord). After the election of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, he left the legal profession to work in state government and was appointed to serve as the Secretary of Administration and Finance. In that role, Gonzalez successfully managed a $32 billion state budget during the Great Recession and oversaw over 3,500 employees in 18 state agencies including the Department of Revenue and agencies responsible for state facilities, human resources, information technology, procurements, and other administrative functions. In this role, he also served on various state boards and commissions.

After his time in state government, Gonzalez served as the president and CEO of CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts and New Hampshire Healthy Families, which provided health insurance coverage to low-income people in state Medicaid programs. Following his time in health care, Gonzalez was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts and was elected to be the Democratic nominee for the 2018 general election. From 2020-2022, he was an adjunct lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law. Gonzalez has been actively engaged in a number of public, civic, and charitable causes, including serving on the boards of various nonprofit organizations. In 2021, he served as a co-chair of the committee overseeing Michelle Wu's transition into the office of mayor of Boston.

Gonzalez was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his bachelor in arts from Dartmouth College in 1993 and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1996. He moved to Boston in 1998. Gonzalez is married to Cyndi Roy Gonzalez, and he has two daughters, Isabel and Abby.