J-P Conte

J-P Conte, also known as Jean-Pierre 'JP' Conte, is an American businessman and philanthropist involved in educational equity, immigration reform and conservation. Conte serves as Chairman and Managing Director of the private equity firm Genstar Capital LLC, having overseen the company's growth to approximately $49 billion of assets under management as of April 2023. He is also known as the founder of the Conte Initiative on Immigration Reform at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, formerly chaired by the author and Republican economist Tim Kane. Jean-Pierre Conte was born in Brooklyn and raised in the New York area to French and Cuban immigrant parents. 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 father had witnessed atrocities perpetrated against the French at the hands of the German SS, whose headquarters were located opposite his school, and later moved to the US at the age of 18. His mother, Isabel Conte, left Cuba after experiencing both the communist and dictatorial Batista regimes, later settling in Brooklyn. After graduating from high school, Conte went on to gain a bachelor's degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was voted 22nd of Harvard Business School's top 100 most successful finance and investing graduates in 2021 by Alumni Spotlight. 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, LLC and currently serves in the capacity of Chairman and Managing Director. In these roles he is in charge of acquisitions, divestitures and the supervision of portfolio companies. During his tenure, Genstar had grown to have approximately$49 billion of assets under management and targets investments in financial services, healthcare, industrials, and software industries.