Ernesto Bertarelli was just entering his thirties when his father, Fabio, the second-generation leader of the Switzerland-based biotech Serono, was diagnosed with cancer in 1996.
Fabio handed over the reins to his son, and would pass away two years after.
The younger Bertarelli described the leadership transition as complex, because he and his father were navigating business and family dynamics.
“A few conversations that we had that were difficult were often in conversations where my father didn’t have the words to speak to his son, while he was very successful speaking with his managers,” Bertarelli told BostInno.
Bertarelli said he has been stewing for many years on the idea of supporting a center focused on family entrepreneurship. After meeting with the team at his undergraduate alma mater, Babson College, his family’s foundation recently made a gift to the college’s family-focused entrepreneurial institute, which launched in 2018.
With about a decade past since his last visit to Babson, this week Bertarelli visited the college’s Wellesley campus to celebrate the rebranding of the institute to the Bertarelli Institute for Family Entrepreneurship, as well as the creation of the Babson Global Family Entrepreneurship Network.
The gift to Babson was made through the Bertarelli Foundation, which Bertarelli co-chairs with his sister Dona. He is also the chairman of B-Flexion, a private entrepreneurial investment firm.
“The relationship with a business is not necessarily just contractual. Sometimes it’s very emotional,” Bertarelli said. “That’s the new perspective that I want to shine on what it means to be an owner in a business, or what it means to bring business back home, what it means to share business issues and business life with your family.”
Leaning into family entrepreneurship
Lauri Union, the executive director of the Bertarelli Institute for Family Entrepreneurship, said Babson has long supported family businesses. In fact, she said, the college was founded to educate the sons of business owners.
But it was Bertarelli who convinced the college that family entrepreneurship, which focuses on entrepreneurial families rather than a single business, was worth investing in.
“The real impetus to move from family business to family entrepreneurship came from Ernesto Bertarelli,” Union said. “And this idea that the entrepreneurship rests within the family and not within the business was a concept that he brought to Babson. And he has funded an academic chair in the space and now the institute.”
Family business is a well-studied area, Union said. Research in this area looks at how a family that controls a business impacts that business. This includes topics like succession planning, creating corporate governance and wealth transfer.
Separately, family entrepreneurship looks at employing the talents of entrepreneurial families to create value across generations — not necessarily within a single business.
“If we can help families to be able to function more effectively together, be better positioned to create value together, whether it’s economic value or social impact, then we believe we can have a significant impact on the world,” Union said.
Family businesses contribute more than 50% to the U.S.’s private sector GDP.
Rolling out new programs
The institute’s work includes yearlong leadership programs for bachelor’s students, young professionals and senior executive leaders; networking by industry; a global thought leader series; and the family entrepreneurship amplifier program to engage students and families together.
Union said a significant portion of Babson’s students, especially those from outside the U.S., have a family business connection. About 40% of its students are international or dual-passport holders, Union said, and of those students, 90% have a family business back home.
The Bertarelli Foundation’s gift is helping establish the Babson Global Family Entrepreneurship Network. The goal of this new effort is to connect Babson family entrepreneurs through a member-based network. Union said they have an initial cohort nearly established. She said the next year will be about building a technology platform to facilitate shared learnings and connections.
“The idea behind this network is that it will be somewhat like a networked learning community. So that means with time, we will be capturing knowledge that can be shared,” Union said. This could include shared experiences like bringing in a non-family CEO or navigating family members leaving the business.
“There’s an infinite list of challenging topics that we would like to help families be better positioned to address,” Union said.
