Richest man

Chapter 18 Europe: Ernesto Bertarelli (1)
——Ernesto Bertarelli: A model of watchmaking spirit In Europe, no rich man is more charming than Ernesto Bertarelli.

He was born in a wealthy family. His grandfather’s company was founded in the early 20th century and became the most prestigious biopharmaceutical company in Europe early on. He began to follow his father in the business world when he was 10 years old. The company makes an annual budget. At the age of 17, he officially succeeded his father and became the CEO of the international company of the entire family business. He is talented and has successively obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Boston University. The crown prince of the Swiss industrial dynasty”; he led the inland country’s sailing team to participate in the world’s most famous America’s Cup sailing competition for the first time and won the championship, which not only made the event return to Europe for the first time after more than 31 years, but also brought the It was pulled from the bottomless pit of swallowing money and transformed into a lucrative event...  

Young, handsome, and personable, Ernesto Bertarelli looks remarkably glamorous on the list of the world's richest people.Now only 40 years old, he is the CEO of Serono, the largest pharmaceutical biotechnology company in Europe and one of the three largest biochemical companies in the world.Ernesto Bertarelli's personal net worth is 58 billion US dollars, ranking 2005th on the 77 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people.

No one knows what kind of miracles this rich man with excellent Swiss entrepreneurial qualities will create, or what colorful life he will create.

"I do things myself"

Ernesto Bertarelli was born in Italy on September 1965, 9, but his nationality belongs to Switzerland.

In Switzerland, apart from the world-renowned Roche Pharmaceutical Group, Ernesto Bertarelli's Serono is another very famous pharmaceutical company. In 1906, Ernesto Bertarelli's grandfather acquired control of the company, thus starting the entire family business.In the early days, Serono mainly extracted protein for medical purposes. In 1978, the drug developed by Serono assisted the birth of the world's first test-tube baby, which made the company famous and established its leading position in conception drugs.

By the time Ernesto Bertarelli was born, his father had succeeded his grandfather as CEO of Serono.

"When I was a kid, I remember him (my father) sitting me in the chair at his desk and telling me, 'Someday you're going to sit in my chair and you're going to be (here) ) to make a decision.’ That made a big impression on me,” recalls Bertarelli.It was under the intentional cultivation of his father that Ernesto Bertarelli, who was only 10 years old, began to meet various clients with his father.By the age of 17, Bertarelli helped his father's company prepare the annual budget, and officially joined Serono at the age of 20.But even though he is the son of the company's CEO, Ernesto Bertarelli has worked as an ordinary salesman and also served as the company's project manager.

In 1994, Bertarelli went to Harvard University in the United States for further study and obtained a master's degree in business administration.When his classmates were rushing out to interview and find a job, he was busy looking through piles of company documents that his father sent him every week.

In 1996, Ernesto Bertarelli succeeded his father who died of cancer and became the vice chairman and chief executive officer of Serono. He was only 31 years old this year.

If anyone inside or outside Serono might have had any doubts about the succession, their doubts were quickly dissipated.Bertarelli quickly made some achievements. He greatly increased the company's investment in research and development. In 2001, the company's research and development expenses reached an astonishing $3 million, accounting for 24% of sales that year, greatly exceeding the 1993 $1.14 million for the year.Due to the successful development of new drugs that sell well all over the world, Serono's total sales increased from US$1996 million in 8.09 to US$2002 billion in 15.46, and its net profit increased from US$5000 million to US$3.21 million.

In addition to managing Serono, in the early years, Ernesto Bertarelli also invested in real estate, high-end resort hotels, and invested in Argentine farms in joint ventures with friends.

Although it was his grandfather and father who laid the foundation for the company and created wealth, Bertarelli used his superhuman intelligence and excellent management skills to double the annual revenue of Serono and develop it into a world-leading biochemical company. one.He established Serono branches in 45 countries around the world, established the Serono brand, and also established a centralized management model of a modern enterprise.

In Ernesto Bertarelli's own words: "My father created a platform, but I did it myself." He is the navigator of the future

Ernesto Bertarelli is amazing. He not only has the dazzling Harvard Business School MBA title on his head, but also has a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University. A European Wall Street Journal even called him "Crown Prince of the Swiss Industrial Dynasty".

Serono was first established in Rome, Italy. In 1977, Bertarelli's father moved the headquarters of Serono to Geneva, Switzerland.As early as the 20s, Serono, which began to devote itself to the research of biotechnology, had developed more than 80 kinds of gene recombination drugs, most of which were already on the market.After Ernesto Bertarelli became the company's CEO, he made up his mind to broaden the company's product range and therapeutic areas.For this reason, Bertarelli has increased investment in the research and development department, and the company invests an average of 10% of sales in research and development every year.

In 2000, Serono's worldwide sales revenue reached 11.40 billion US dollars, and in 2001, its sales revenue was 13.8 billion US dollars, with a growth rate of 21%, becoming the fastest growing company among the world's top 500 companies announced by "Forbes".

Also in this year, under the leadership of Ernesto Bertarelli, Serono's shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States.The U.S. listing of the stock raised $10 billion for Serono, but Bertarelli didn't use that money to make blind acquisitions.Instead, he took a slower but more logical step, targeting the U.S. market. "We can be a biotech bridge in Europe, but our future is in the United States," Bertarelli said.

His idea is not wrong. In the first year of entering the US market, Serono’s sales in the US market accounted for 35% of Serono’s total sales. Bertarelli plans to increase this proportion within 5 years to 60%.In order to achieve this goal, Ernesto Bertarelli is also working hard to push the company's trump card drug for multiple sclerosis developed by recombinant DNA technology into the US market - Rebif's sales in markets outside the US have reached 3.8 million US dollars , and accounted for 38% of the market share outside the United States, but Rebif was blocked from the U.S. market—after hard work, Serono finally obtained the permission of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002 to distribute Rebif in the U.S. .Analysts expect Rebif to control 2005 percent of the $40 billion worldwide market for multiple sclerosis drugs by 35.

In addition to the American market, Serono is looking for a wider space in the world. By 2004, Serono had established branches in 45 countries, and its products are sold in more than 100 countries and regions.After entering China in 1994, many of Serono's drugs have passed the review one after another, began to enter the Chinese market, and achieved success in some fields.

"Serono's turnaround has been very successful, and the company's pilot, Bertarelli, has a bright future," said a biotech analyst at Commerzbank.

the man who made the centennial contest profitable

What really made Ernesto Bertarelli stand out and become a media darling was his sailing team winning the America's Cup and his outstanding contribution to the promotion of the event.

The opportunity to form the fleet was also quite fortuitous.After the 2000 Copa America, Ernesto Bertarelli met New Zealand captain Russell Coutts, an Olympic gold medalist and three-time Copa America winner.After this meeting, Ernesto Bertarelli, who had longed to ride the wind and waves in the sea since he was a child, had the idea of ​​​​building his own fleet.After the second meeting, Coutts expressed his willingness to join a new team - rumors pointed out that the New Zealand team was dissatisfied with the low salary, and Bertarelli was paid 250 million euros, which is the market price. 5 times, signed a three-year contract with Coutts, and then he successfully poached the New Zealand team's tactical expert Brad Butterworth and other sailing elites.

Unlike some other rich men who participate in the America's Cup purely for the show, Ernesto Bertarelli himself is a pure sailing fan.Although he lives in Switzerland, which has no coastline, he has learned sailing in the Mediterranean Sea in southern France since he was a child, and has participated in many sailing competitions, large and small.Therefore, forming a sailing team this time is a very prudent choice for him.While starting to form his own fleet, he also exerted his influence and proposed that "in order to facilitate the purchase of ships and recruit members by each fleet, the restrictions on the nationality of the crew should be abolished, and the ban on the simultaneous sale of engineering technology and performance data with the hull should be abolished." regulations; moving the race to Europe and having cities vie for the right to host it, pushing the teams to come up with more tricks to please the sponsors, and also giving the teams more opportunities to raise money to compete" and so on, and won Supported by the competition committee.

A few months after successfully recruiting Russell Coutts, a sailing team named Alinch was finally born, and various preparations began immediately - including the design and construction of new boats in Switzerland.Alynch is a new name imagined by Bertarelli that claims to bring good luck.In addition to attaching great importance to the design and performance of the sailboat and recruiting top engineers, he also paid great attention to the color of the hull. Red represents the determination to win, and anthracite gray represents various cutting-edge technologies of the sailboat.It is said that the design budget of the entire Alinci sailing team is as high as 9000 million euros, of which Bertarelli paid 5500 million euros out of his own pocket, and received 1000 million euros each from UBS and Infonet.

The Alinci sailing team started practicing in 2001, with members from 15 countries.And Bertarelli, who was with this joint fleet, not only contributed money, but also practiced himself. He served as the navigator in the sailing team.He spends time every morning working out in the fitness room.Participating in the America's Cup requires a lot of money, energy and time, and Bertarelli thinks it is worth it. He said: "It is an opportunity that can only be encountered once in a lifetime to be able to hire a group of top sailing staff."

Sufficient financial resources and excellent players bring the highest level of victory. At the 2003st America's Cup Regatta held in Auckland, New Zealand in 31, the Swiss Alinci team led by Bertarelli successfully defeated the two-time champion New Zealand in the final and won the America's Cup, making Switzerland the world's most The oldest sporting competition since its inception in 1851 and the first European country to win.The Swiss team also made history for a team from a landlocked country to win the trophy.

When Bertarelli brought his team back to Switzerland from New Zealand, they were warmly welcomed by the "Alinci" fans at Geneva Airport, and even Swiss President Couchepin rushed to the airport to greet them. Congratulations."I'm the happiest person in the world," said Bertarelli as he stepped off the plane with the silver trophy in hand.

The victory of the game is just the beginning. Ernesto Bertarelli, who has huge wealth and creativity, has another idea: he wants to make this event a huge profit machine.So Ernesto Bertarelli began to cooperate with another billionaire Ellison, and signed an unprecedented agreement with the challenge team of the next game, that is, the sale of the broadcasting rights of the next game will be controlled by The management company that specializes in the America's Cup takes full responsibility, avoiding the chaos of bickering over the finer points of dividing up television rights revenue.And he believes that shortening the race time and stabilizing the weather will make it easier to promote the regatta, which will also win more live and TV viewers.

Elsewhere, Ernesto Bertarelli orchestrated five European cities vying for the right to host the 2007 America's Cup, pitting them against each other to raise their bids.In the end, the Spanish city of Valencia won the right to host the event with a price tag of US$6 million.

(End of this chapter)