Rich List 2012: No.1 - Kirsty Bertarelli (£6.5bn)
Kirsty Bertarelli is not only this year’s richest Midlander for the fourth year in succession; she is the richest woman in the UK and one of the richest in the world.
Ms Bertarelli – formerly Kirsty Roper from Stone in Staffordshire who was crowned Miss UK in 1988 –married the biotechnology tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli in 2000 after meeting him three years earlier at a party in Sardinia.
Since then she has become closely involved in her husband’s yachting syndicate – he won the Americas Cup in 2003 and 2007 – and indulging her love of music, combining that with raising money for the UK-Swiss Smiling Children charity and other charities supported by the Bertarelli Foundation.
Kirsty’s ambition was to make a career in music. She wrote her own songs and secured a record deal with Warner Records. In 2000 she co-wrote the All Saints hit Black Coffee which made No.1.
Described by Le Matin as having ‘a golden voice’ she released her debut album Elusive in 2010. It quickly climbed to number 20 in the Swiss charts and was followed by two single releases. She has also made several live appearances including the Montreux Jazz Festival, and supporting Mick Hucknall’s Simply Red in concerts in Zurich and Edinburgh.
Her husband, and their three children, Chiara, Falco and Alceo, now live on the shores of Lake Geneva. They also own a house in Knightsbridge, where the couple can often be seen drinking in the local pub – Mr Bertarelli is a confirmed anglophile – and a chalet in the Alpine resort of Gstaad, where the family own the legendary winter sports hotel Grand Hotel Park.
Ms Bertarelli went to St. Dominic’s Catholic School in her home town of Stone before attending Howells Boarding School in Denbigh, North Wales, where she was a member of the school choir and enjoyed sports. Ms Bertarelli, now aged 39, left school and entered modelling, becoming Miss UK a years later at just 17. She went on to come third in the Miss World competition.
Her father, Michael Roper, and his two brothers ran the family pottery company in Stoke-on-Trent – Churchill China – and the Ropers are still significant shareholders. Churchill was AIM-listed in 1994 and is one of the world’s major manufacturers and distributors of ceramic tableware, tracing its origins back to 1795. The company has made a good recovery from the recession with increased turnover and profits, selling its products in more than 40 countries worldwide.
As well as singing and writing music, she designs fashion clothing and jewellery, and has created her own fashion line. Her charity work includes serving on the committee of Smiling Children which helps underprivileged children in developing countries get education and employment, and fights against child labour.
Mr Bertarelli ran the family company Serono – the biggest biotechnology company in Europe and a leader in reproductive treatments, as well as drugs for multiple sclerosis. He sold the company to Merck of Germany in 2006.
Ernesto’s businesses now include Kedge Capital, an investment management group with bases in London, Jersey and Geneva, and Ares Life Sciences, a private equity company.
In 2008 Ares Life backed the buyout of pan-European healthcare company Euromedic for £670 million, and that investment looks set to reap big dividends.
In its Swiss Rich List, Bilan magazine put the Bertarelli family fortune at £6.87 billion. We make a downward adjustment to take account of stock market falls.
