Thomas “TJ” Conti '97, P'34, '35: A Wall Street Executive Who Will Take Your Order

TJ Conti apologized for having to reschedule an afternoon appointment. 

 “I’m on the bus,” whispered Conti, Albany Academy’s assistant boys’ varsity basketball coach. “We’re going to Rhode Island and back.”  

The next day he had disappointing news: a tough loss to Mount Saint Charles Academy. He planned to work on shot selection before the next game.

By then, he would perhaps take phone orders for prosciutto or chicken cutlets during the lunch rush at Cardona’s Market, which he co-owns, manage his coffee service and vending machine company, and check in with his New York City restaurants where Brooke Shields and Bradley Cooper are regulars. 

Conti, 46, whose wife, Laura Conger ’00, is an Albany Academy for Girls graduate, drives their sons, Thomas ’34 and Tyler ’35, to the Lower School and coaches their travel baseball and basketball games near home in Voorheesville. 

While he thrives on variety, he counts on the continuity of the school where he built math skills, excelled at sports, and met friends who would become business partners. Among them is August Cardona ’96, a partner in four Manhattan restaurants and at Cardona’s Market, the Albany landmark that recently expanded to three locations.  

Conti’s education and scrappy determination also enabled him to rise quickly on Wall Street – then leave it after 20 years for a life that takes in much of what he cares about in a single day. 

 “I would say Academy really taught me for the first time that there were achievement levels above what I was familiar with, success levels in the world I wasn’t exposed to,” he said on a typical day of restaurant business, carpooling and practice. “It was not only in the classroom, but the parents, the kids. They were much more driven than I was used to.” 

Raised in Albany, Conti attended Catholic school. Several friends planned to attend high school at Academy. He also hoped to experience the rigorous academics and athletics, but cost was a factor. He got the chance thanks to the late Paul Weafer P’95, ’96, an Albany Academy booster.  

Conti was among the students Weafer guided through the application and financial aid processes, and continued to mentor. The father of Christine ’95, a soccer captain, and Kenneth ’96, a football player, Weafer was a regular at games and eager to strengthen athletics.    

“With his help, the school became more attractive to talented athletes,” noted Conti, who assisted with Weafer’s posthumous 2025 induction to the Athletics Hall of Fame. 

Entering Academy in eighth grade, Conti said he was behind his classmates. But his teachers, particularly Patricia Rider and John Hofgesang P’09, spent hours helping him catch up. Conti showed a propensity for math, which teachers advanced with extra assignments. 

A 5’10” shooting guard, he was far from the tallest basketball player, but among the most talented. His team made the state regionals when he was a senior, and he won Section II MVP. Conti was also a highly skilled shortstop whose teams made baseball sectionals every year and captured the league championship his senior year. His awards and victories were recognized when he was named to the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.  

He majored in economics at Hamilton College, where he found the demanding academics somewhat less daunting than he had in high school. He found success on the basketball team, reaching the NCAA Tournament three times.

“Academy prepared me for the workload and demanding schedule, especially as an athlete,” he said. 

His work ethic, he said, stood out when Goldman Sachs hired him as a financial analyst. Conti rose quickly in 19 years at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Barclays. At 34, he achieved the top title, managing director, at Citigroup, and ran a global trading and technology team. 

By then, he had partnered with August Cardona ’96 in thriving Manhattan restaurants, including L'artusi, which appears on many “best of” lists for Italian food. 

“It was great to have a ‘hobby’ while my real job was going on,” he recalls. 

But the finance world was becoming less creative and more grueling. The Contis didn’t want to raise their sons in the city. They returned to the Capital Region. They enrolled Thomas and Tyler in Academy, where they are thriving and experiencing the same challenging education and exposure to athletics and the arts they themselves had. 

Laura works as a nurse practitioner and TJ made his hobbies his profession. He said his wife’s understanding of his many commitments has been essential to the success of his businesses. 

He is a partner at Cardona’s Market, where August Cardona is the third generation, and he helped expand the legendary business to Latham and Saratoga Springs. Conti is no foodie, he says, but he is active in operations, particularly technology and budgeting.  

He also co-founded and runs Lean Machine, his coffee service and vending machine company he opened with his friend and college basketball teammate Jim Driggs P’29, Academy’s head boys’ basketball varsity coach. That business is based in the same building as the Latham Cardona’s, convenient for lunches. 

When he can, Conti visits L’artusi and its spin-off, Bartusi, and is active in strategy and growth of the spots where people try hard not to notice when Derek Jeter walks in.  

None of that matters when he fills in on the phones at Cardona’s. He prefers a low profile.  

“I don’t want to be in the photos. You’d see three Cardonas and think ‘Who is this other guy?’” Conti said. “I’d rather be behind the scenes working my tail off. I understand the impact I have and that makes me proud with every business I grow.”