Jean-Pierre "JP" Conte serves as managing partner of family office Lupine Crest Capital, applying decades of private equity experience to strategic investments and philanthropic initiatives. The son of immigrants from France and Cuba, Conte earned his economics degree from Colgate University in 1985 and Harvard Business School MBA in 1989 before beginning his finance career at Chase Manhattan Bank.
Conte built his investment expertise leading a San Francisco-based private equity firm, guiding growth from approximately $100 million to $49 billion in assets under management across healthcare, financial services, software, and industrial technology sectors. His approach emphasizes operational transformation through strategic partnerships with management teams and systematic value creation initiatives.
His philanthropic work reflects the same analytical framework applied to investments. As a first-generation college graduate, Conte established the Conte First Generation Fund providing scholarships and support at 11 universities. His $25 million donation to Colgate University funded campus social infrastructure, representing one of the institution's largest single gifts.
Conte's $5 million contribution to UCSF created endowed professorships in Parkinson's research, motivated by his father's diagnosis with the disease. He founded the JP Conte Initiative on Immigration at Stanford's Hoover Institution, supporting research-driven policy analysis.
Through Lupine Crest Capital and the JP Conte Family Foundation, Conte integrates investment activities with educational equity initiatives. His board service includes Eagle Football Holdings LLC and various healthcare technology companies. As a Forbes Business Council member, he contributes thought leadership on investment strategy and corporate philanthropy, demonstrating how private capital can address both financial performance and societal challenges.
JP Conte founded the J-P Conte Family Foundation in 2017 in honor of his parents, Pierre and Isabel Conte, who emigrated respectively from France and Cuba to build new lives in the United States. As founder, Conte directs the foundation's philanthropic efforts across a range of causes spanning from education to environmental conservation. He takes a hands-on approach to grantmaking, personally evaluating partner organizations and maintaining direct involvement with the programs the foundation supports. The foundation's current partners include UCSF, SEO Scholars, 10,000 Degrees, the Pan American Development Foundation, Pepperwood Preserve, and the J-P Conte Initiative on Immigration at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
