J-P Conte

Jean-Pierre Conte is an American businessman and philanthropist involved in educational equity, legal immigration reform and conservation. Conte is chairman and managing partner of the private equity firm Genstar Capital LLC.
Early life and education
His father, Pierre A. Conte, who grew up during the Nazi occupation of France, worked as a tailor and clothing salesman on Wall Street. His mother, Isabel Conte, left Cuba after experiencing both the communist and dictatorial Batista regimes, later settling in Brooklyn.
Career
Conte started his career at Chase Manhattan Bank, NYC, in 1985, before entering the private equity sector after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1989.
In 1995, Conte joined Genstar Capital and is Chairman and Managing Partner. In these roles he is in charge of acquisitions, divestitures and the supervision of portfolio companies. Genstar is now worth approximately $49 billion of assets under management and targets investments in financial services, healthcare, industrials, and software industries.
Since late 2022, Conte is on the board of Eagle Football Holdings LLC, investing in various soccer clubs including Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon (Ligue 1), Botafogo in Rio de Janeiro (Series A), and Crystal Palace, London (Premier League).
He has formerly acted as a director at NTC Group.
Since 2025, he has also founded and directed Lupine Crest Capital, a family office based in Aspen focusing on private equity, real estate, and venture investing.
Philanthropy
Conte's financial support for philanthropic causes has a focus on educational equity, neuroscience, democracy, the American Dream, land preservation, and civic freedom. Conte founded the J-P Conte Family Foundation in 2017 which, according to it's website, 'aims of improving educational equity for young people, protecting democracy, and upholding freedom'. In 2018, the J-P Conte Family Foundation made a funding pledge to the neuroscience department of UCSF Foundation (University of California, San Francisco), where he is on the board of directors. Conte also sits on the board of the California Pacific Medical Center. In 2025, he donated $5 million to UCSF's Department of Neurology, establishing two new professorships, which will focus on studies related to Parkinson's disease.
Conte is on the board of Pepperwood Preserve, an organization working support on preserving and conserving the landscape in Sonoma from wildfire destruction. Conte also holds positions as a trustee, board member and director of many non-for-profit boards, including the UCSF Foundation, CPMC, 10,000 Degrees, the Pepperwood Preserve, the SEO Scholars Advisory board, Colgate University, the Hoover Institution’s Board of Overseers, the Hoover Institution’s J-P Conte Initiative on Immigration, and the Board of Dean’s Advisors of Harvard Business School.
Political views and advocacy
A supporter of reform around legal immigration, Conte serves on the Hoover Institution Board of Overseers and established the Conte Task Force on Immigration Reform, co-chaired by Edward Lazear and Tim Kane, followed by the J-P Conte Initiative on Immigration with Paola Sapienza. The Initiative “aims to foster cutting-edge research and facilitates informed academic and policy debates on the economic effects of immigration".

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