Patrizio BERTELLI

President and CEO, Gruppo Prada

Patrizio Bertelli was born in Arezzo, Italy, in 1946 into a family of lawyers.
In 1967, he started his career in business setting-up a small factory in Arezzo to produce belts and bags.
In 1977, he met Miuccia Prada – who later became his wife - and signed a contract to produce a leather accessories collection for the Prada label. This partnership successfully grew to form what is now the enduring heritage of the PRADA Group.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s Prada continued to develop new product lines and opened additional stores in major cities and tourist locations throughout the world - resulting in a total of 291 stores at Group level by the end of 2004 – and bought some of the most prestigious brands of the luxury goods sector.
A keen sailor, Paytrizio Bertelli challenged for the America’s Cup, the world’s most prestigious yachting trophy, in 2000 and in 2003. In 2004 he launched, in partnership with the Telecom Italia Group, the new syndicate “Luna Rossa”, to compete in the 2007 edition, which will be sailed in Valencia (Spain).