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 reproductive health and infertility, 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.
Dona previously served as Special Adviser for the Blue Economy for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In 2021, Dona was appointed a member of the Mission Blue board. Dona is also part of a community of advocates, the World Economic Forum’s Friends of Ocean Action, and is a founding patron of Womanity Foundation.
In 2021, Dona Bertarelli and her husband Yann Guichard became Patrons of Nature of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A year later, in a joint initiative with the IUCN, International Olympic Committee (IOC), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Sports for Nature Framework was launched, which aims at delivering transformative nature positive actions across sports for the protection and restoration of biodiversity.
Dona Bertarelli has founded several projects, working with a number of different partners. She founded the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, where she works in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts to advance ocean conservation, for the benefit of the communities which rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. Between them, they have helped to safeguard more than 13 million square kilometres of ocean by working with communities, local leaders, philanthropic partners, Indigenous groups, government officials, and scientists. She is also the founder of Global Fishing Watch Marine Manager, a dynamic technology portal created to help transform the management of marine protected areas, visualising ocean ecosystems spanning more than 10 million square kilometres.
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, as well as two Fastnet races. She holds the record from Ushant to the Equator on the Jules Verne Trophy route, and for the Transat Québec-Saint Malo and the Discovery Route. Dona Bertarelli has twice been named Female Sailor of the Year, in 2014 and 2016, at the SUI Sailing Awards. She founded the professional sailing team, Sails of Change, formerly named 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.