Ernesto Bertarelli

Ernesto Bertarelli
Born	Ernesto Bertarelli 22 September 1965 (1965-09-22) Rome, Italy
Residence	Lake Geneva
Nationality	Switzerland/Italian
Ethnicity	Italian
Alma mater	Babson College Harvard Business School
Occupation	Businessman Sportsman Entrepreneur
Known for	Serono Alinghi America's Cup
Net worth	USD $ 10.0 billion
Spouse	Kirsty Roper (m. 2000) «start: (2000)»"Marriage: Kirsty Roper to Ernesto Bertarelli" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Bertarelli)
Children	3

Ernesto Bertarelli (born 22 September 1965) is a Swiss-Italian billionaire and entrepreneur.

Together with his extended family, Bertarelli was ranked 81st in the 2011 annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people compiled and published by Forbes magazine, The family's wealth was estimated at US$10.0 billion.

Biography

Born in Rome, his family moved to Switzerland in 1977. He graduated from Babson College in 1989, and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1993.

Career

His father founded Serono, a pharmaceutical company that he moved from Rome to Switzerland. Bertarelli became CEO and Deputy Chairman in 1996, and with his sister Dona inherited ownership in 1998 on the death of his father. Changing the company's focus from pharmaceuticals to biotechnology, revenues increased from $809 million in 1996 to $2.8 billion in 2006. The company gained fame from its discovery of a natural hormone used in the treatment of female infertility.

Bertarelli instructed advisers in 2006, agreeing to sell the company to Merck KGaA of Germany in January 2007 for US$13.3 billion, forming the new company Merck-Serono. He and his sister split a combined $9 billion stake.

After Serono

Between 2002 and 2009, he served as a board director of UBS AG.

His current business and finance interests include Kedge Capital, an investment management group specializing in hedge funds, private equity and real estate.

In 2008 he launched Ares Life Sciences, which builds on his extensive healthcare industry knowledge, investing across the spectrum of medical technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Since its inception, this investment company has already acquired majority participations in Euromedic, a leading pan-European medical services provider specializing in diagnostic imagining, clinical laboratory, renal care and cancer treatment; Esaote, a global player in diagnostic imaging, with a strong international presence in ultrasound and dedicated MRI; and Stallergenes, a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the treatment of severe respiratory allergies by allergen immunotherapy, world leader on the sublingual immunotherapy market.

In 2010, the Bertarelli family also launched a new asset management business, Northill Capital.

Sailing

In 2000, Bertarelli founded the yachting syndicate Team Alinghi, which in 2003, representing the Société Nautique de Genève, won the Louis Vuitton Cup before beating Team New Zealand in Auckland to win the America's Cup. It was the first time a team had ever won the coveted sailing trophy on its first attempt, with the victory bringing the Cup to Europe for the first time. Team Alinghi hired sailors from many different nationalities, including Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth, respectively skipper and tactician of Team New Zealand's 2000 crew. Bertarelli was Team Alinghi's only Swiss national serving as navigator in 2003 and subsequently as an afterguard runner and grinder in 2007, when Team Alinghi defended the America's Cup in Valencia. On July 3, 2007, Alinghi beat Team New Zealand in race 7 by 1 second to retain the America's Cup, winning the series 5-2.

In recognition of his success, in 2003 Bertarelli was named Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur by French President Jacques Chirac, and was given the Cavaliere di Gran Croce by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic.

Société Nautique de Genève and Bertarelli's efforts to organize the 33rd America's Cup following their 2007 victory in Alinghi were subject to numerous legal challenges by the Golden Gate Yacht Club. The race finally took place in February 2010, in Valencia, Spain. Bertarelli was the primary helmsman of his boat Alinghi 5, which lost both races against the challenger USA 17 by a considerable margin.

Philanthropy

Bertarelli and his family established a foundation in 1999 for promoting research and development in the field of male and female infertility, assisted reproduction technologies, andrology, genetics and endocrinology; supporting training, education and international and national exchanges in these areas through grants. The Bertarelli Foundation, in Trelex, Switzerland, merged into the Foundation FABER, in Lausanne, in 2006, and since 2008 a renewed Bertarelli Foundation has regrouped the family’s numerous philanthropic initiatives in the fields of charity, health, sciences, sport and culture.

Some projects recently sponsored by the Bertarelli Foundation have been the research Centre for Neuroprosthetics at the EPFL in Lausanne; the partnership with the British government for the Marine Reserve in Chagos, in the Indian Ocean; a joint research and education programme in neuroscience between Harvard Medical School and EPFL; the Swiss Sailing Grants in partnership with the Swiss Sailing Federation; and the Henna Pre-School in South Africa.

The British government's Cabinet recently established the The Chagos Archipelago as the world's largest marine reserve, larger than the country of France or the state of California. The protection of the marine reserve will be guaranteed for the next five years thanks to the financement of the Bertarelli Foundation. On December 3, 2010, Wikileaks released a document revealing that the marine reserve was established primarily in order to legally block any attempts by the Chagossians to return to their homeland.

According to Wikileaks CableGate documents, in a calculated move the UK proposed in 2009 that the BIOT become a "marine reserve" with the aim of preventing the former inhabitants from returning to their lands. The summary of the diplomatic cable is as follows :

HMG would like to establish a “marine park” or “reserve” providing comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official informed Polcouns on May 12. The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park -- the world’s largest -- would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes. He agreed that the UK and U.S. should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve to assure that U.S. interests were safeguarded and the strategic value of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT’s former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.

Personal life

Bertarelli met Kirsty Roper, a former 1988 Miss UK and song-writer, while on holiday in Italy in 1997. The couple married in 2000, and have three children.

The couple live in Gstaad and spend time in their house on the shores of Lake Geneva. In December 2008, Appledore Shipbuilders launched the hull of Project55, Bertarelli's new yacht.

See also

• Lists of billionaires

External links

• Alinghi.com
• Ares Life Sciences
• Bertarelli Foundation
• Bertarelli Family
• Ernesto Bertarelli profile at Forbes magazine
• Ernesto Bertarelli sailing interview at Financial Times