Dona Bertarelli is a philanthropist, ocean advocate, and the fastest woman to sail around the world. She is the Special Adviser for the Blue Economy to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a Patron of Nature of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), member of the Mission Blue board, and co-chair of the Bertarelli Foundation.
Over more than a decade, Dona has contributed to the creation of ecologically significant, large-scale marine protected areas through the Bertarelli Foundation, and through the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, which she founded with The Pew Charitable Trusts in 2017. As a natural progression in ocean conservation, she is now advocating for the connectivity of marine protected areas, to help conserve key migratory species and entire marine ecosystems, for the benefit of the communities which rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. In 2022, she was honoured with The Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship for her work in ocean conservation.