LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ernesto Bertarelli: America's Cup
built 642 days ago
Ernesto Bertarelli has gathered some of the best sailors in the world, lead by ex-Team New Zealand America's Cup two-time winners Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth. With lots of Haruaki Gulf experience and lots of funding, Alinghi is considered the team to beat in the Louis Vuitton. www.alinghi.com
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The America's Cup yacht concept, Alinghi, is the brainchild of Ernesto Bertarelli, CEO of Serono International SA. In October 2001, he enlisted EPFL as Alinghi's official scientific partner. Drawing upon the rich collective experience and transdisciplinary efforts already well established at EPFL, the partnership evolved over the next two years to involve four EPFL laboratories.
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Ernesto Bertarelli, 41 ans révolus,est né avec un service complet de cuillères en argent dans la bouche. Héritier d'un grand groupe pharmaceutique, Serono, ce Suisse d'origine italienne a toujours su mener de front vie sportive et business. Diplômé du Babson College de Boston et titulaire d'un MBA de Harvard, il est marié à une charmante Anglaise, Kirsty, avec laquelle il a trois enfants. PDG de Serono depuis la mort de son père, il a vendu ses participations et celles de sa famille en septembre dernier à l'allemand Merck pour la bagatelle de 10,5 milliards de francs suisses. Il a ainsi pu, depuis, dédier tout son temps à l'America's Cup. Passionné de voile, il a conquis de nombreux titres sur le lac Léman avant de créer Alinghi en 2000, en débauchant six membres majeurs de Team New Zealand, qui détenait à l'époque le trophée.
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IN COURT The dispute between Swiss biotech billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli and New Zealand America's Cup captain Russell Coutts is now going through the legal process in Switzerland. Coutts, the most successful skipper in America's Cup history with 14 consecutive race wins in the last three events, was sacked last July by Bertarelli, who had lured him away from Team New Zealand in 2003 to lead the Swiss Alinghi team. Bertarelli contends that Coutts breached his contract, Coutts that Bertarelli terminated it illegally. - By Tim Jeffery, Telegraph, full story, http://tinyurl.com/48pne
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"Ernesto Bertarelli will not spend all his time at the Geneva headquarters worrying about how slow his researchers are being at coming up with a new product," wrote the German newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "He will be able to use his spare time to go sailing and prepare the next America's Cup."
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Bertarelli's actions during the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, and the 2003 campaign in Auckland have attracted criticism from New Zealand. Specifically for the fact that the Swiss sailing team won the cup by "purchasing key members of the New Zealand team", according to some yachting fans. On July 3, 2007, Team Alinghi beat Team New Zealand over the line by 1 second to retain the America's Cup, winning the series 5-2. Bertarelli said the evening during the Swiss news on TV that "Russell Coutts memory is now over" [1].
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