Dona Bertarelli is, with her brother Ernesto, co-chair of the Bertarelli Foundation, founded in memory of their father, Fabio. A Swiss philanthropist, investor and sportswoman, she was a driving force behind Serono SA’s philanthropy and educational programmes.
As chair for much of the first ten years of the foundation, Dona led the Bertarelli Foundation’s early work to improve the public’s understanding of infertility and sterility, through international conferences bringing together leading researchers, reproductive health experts, patients and patient advocacy organisations, as well as support and advocacy for scientific studies, and dedicated websites. In 2003, Dona was awarded the Kokopelli Prize by the American Infertility Association in recognition of her work.
The Bertarelli Foundation subsequently made marine protection one of its priorities alongside life science, and today it provides global leadership in marine conservation and science. The foundation engages with local communities, governments and scientists to commission and provide research on topics such as analyses of economic outcomes, or the impact of overfishing on biodiversity, which underpin policy decisions. To date, the foundation has contributed to the protection of more than 2.7 million km2 of ocean in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and in the Caribbean Sea.
In 2020, Dona was named the Special Adviser for the Blue Economy for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), serving until 2023. In 2021, Dona became a Patron of Nature of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and was also appointed a member of the Mission Blue board. Dona is part of a community of advocates, the World Economic Forum’s Friends of Ocean Action, and is a founding patron of Womanity Foundation. She also launched Sails of Change with her husband Yann Guichard, dedicated to the protection and regeneration of biodiversity, focused on a first, common goal: to fully or highly protect 30% of global ocean and land by 2030.
Dona’s commitment to conservation has been recognised with The Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship, the Prince Albert I Grand Medal, Mediation Section, from the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco, and she has been honoured as a Commander of the National Order of Honorato Vasquez of Ecuador, and as a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France.
As an investor, with assets in hospitality and real estate, she focuses on long-term value creation.
An accomplished sailor, Dona has won prestigious races and broken records both inshore and offshore, winning the Bol d’Or Mirabaud in 2010 and 2014. She founded the professional sailing team, Spindrift, with her husband, Yann, in 2011. In 2016, the team attempted sailing’s ultimate challenge, the Jules Verne Trophy and while they narrowly missed beating the record, Dona became the fastest woman to sail around the world.