Ernesto Bertarelli

Ernesto Bertarelli
Image	; Bertarelli in 2015
Born	22 September 1965 (Forbes) Rome (Fondation Bertarelli; B-FLEXION)
Nationality	Swiss
Residence	Gstaad (Forbes)
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Former chief executive of Serono; chairman of B-FLEXION; founder of the Alinghi sailing team
Sibling(s)	Dona Bertarelli
Education	Babson College (1989); Harvard Business School (MBA, 1993)

Swiss businessman; former chief executive of Serono

Ernesto Bertarelli (born 22 September 1965) is a Swiss businessman. He was chief executive of the biotechnology company Serono until his family sold it to Merck KGaA in 2007. He now chairs the investment group B-FLEXION and co-chairs the Bertarelli Foundation with his sister, Dona.^[1]^[2]^[3] On 11 November 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Bertarelli 300th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$11.5 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as biotech, investments.^[3]^[4] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Bertarelli 271st, at US$11.6 billion.^[5]

Early life and education

Bertarelli was born in Rome in 1965, and his family moved to Switzerland in 1977. He graduated from Babson College in 1989 and took an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1993.^[2]

Serono

Bertarelli became chief executive of Serono in 1996.^[1] Forbes says he inherited the company, maker of the multiple sclerosis drug Rebif, after his father's death in 1998.^[3] The sources give different revenue figures for Serono. The Bertarelli Foundation and B-FLEXION say revenues more than tripled under his leadership to US$2.8 billion in 2006, while Forbes says he and his sister grew it to US$2.4 billion.^[1]^[2]^[3] On 21 September 2006 Merck KGaA announced that it had agreed to buy the Bertarelli family's majority stake in Serono for CHF 1,100 a share in cash. It said this would give it 64.5% of the capital and 75.5% of the voting rights, and put Serono's total equity value at CHF 16.6 billion.^[6] Forbes says the sale, completed in 2007, was for more than US$13 billion.^[3]

Later business

Bertarelli's current business interests include the B-FLEXION group of asset management and life-science investment businesses, and the foundation's biography also names Waypoint Capital.^[2]^[1] He was a director of UBS from 2002 to 2009.^[1]

Philanthropy

The Bertarelli family set up the Bertarelli Foundation in 1998. Its work started in healthcare and life sciences and has expanded into marine conservation, education and culture.^[2]

Chagos marine reserve

In 2010 the Bertarelli Foundation entered a partnership with the British government to help set up a marine protected area around the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory, then the world's largest no-take reserve, covering 640,000 km².^[7] The sailing magazine Latitude 38 reported in September 2010 that Bertarelli had offered more than US$5 million to support the reserve, after concerns that it might not be viable without private money because of the loss of more than US$1 million a year in tuna fishing licence fees. It said the foundation, working through the Blue Marine Foundation, agreed to cover that shortfall.^[8] The foundation says it has since helped the territory's administration enforce the ban on commercial fishing.^[7]

Science programmes

In 2017 the foundation launched the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science, which brings together scientists from several countries to work in the Indian Ocean. Its first phase covers four research themes, including the movements of species such as seabirds, turtles, tuna, sharks and mantas, and the resilience of coral reefs. The foundation says it will not fund projects that only monitor the ocean's decline.^[7]^[9] The family also funds the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, which works with several institutions on sensory disorders such as genetic deafness and retinal degenerative diseases.^[9]

Sailing

Bertarelli founded the Alinghi sailing team in 2000. It beat Team New Zealand in Auckland to win the America's Cup in 2003 and defended the trophy in Valencia in 2007.^[1]

Honours

Bertarelli was awarded the Légion d'honneur by President Jacques Chirac.^[1]

Personal life

Forbes says his wife, Kirsty, is a former Miss UK and a singer-songwriter.^[3]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 26 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2001. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[5]^[3]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2001	27	10.5
2002	31	8.4
2003	64	4.7
2004	51	7.4
2005	77	5.8
2006	72	7.1
2007	76	8.8
2008	75	10.3
2009	52	8.2
2010	64	10.0
2011	81	10.0
2012	83	10.6
2013	94	11.0
2014	92	12.0
2015	149	8.8
2016	129	8.6
2017	151	8.6
2018	174	8.9
2019	183	8.0
2020	169	8.0
2021	288	8.6
2022	251	8.5
2023	204	9.4
2024	180	11.2
2025	212	11.5
2026	271	11.6

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."