José Cofiño received his initial ALS diagnosis in 2012 shortly after his 25th reunion with classmates at Stanford Graduate School of Business, with a confirmatory diagnosis in August of 2013 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
Growing up, his family was forced from Cuba during the revolution in 1959 and moved to Mexico. José lost his father when he was six years old and his brother a year later. He and his mother immigrated to the United States shortly thereafter and began the four day bus trip to Washington, DC, where other relatives had settled after fleeing Cuba. José’s mother enrolled him in the best schools possible and eventually he would enroll at Georgetown University and later Stanford Graduate School of Business.
José has worked for some of the top corporations in the world, including PepsiCo Restaurants and The Walt Disney Company, among others. In addition to success in business, he has been involved in mentoring and charitable causes throughout his career, including being appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson of California the chairman of the CA Mentor Initiative, and has been a champion for youth mentorship and diversity in education and the workplace.
Shortly after his diagnosis, José began Beyond ALS, a website to talk about the disease in a different way. Beyond ALS has a series of blogs from José and others which have drawn forward different perspectives following the diagnosis. In addition, José and his network have organized several different fundraising events and activities raising well over $150,000 for ALS research.
José met the love of his life, Ben Trust, while negotiating to place a new restaurant at Disney in Florida. Ben and José live together in Santa Barbara, CA.