John Bertrand AO

An international yachtsman, businessman and philanthropist, John Bertrand AO skippered Australia 11 to victory over the US team Liberty to win the 1983 America’s Cup.

The victory was considered by the Confederation of Australian Sport as the ‘greatest team performance in 200 years of Australian sport’. The victory broke 132 years of American domination, the longest running streak in modern sporting history. There is now a Netflix documentary ‘Untold – The Race of the Century’.

John competed in five America’s Cups and two Olympic Games over 25 years of international competition. He is a triple world sailing champion.

He has a Master of Science from MIT in Boston, graduated from Monash University with a Mec Eng (Hon) degree, and has an Honorary Doctorate from Victoria University. He is a Vice Chancellor Professorial Fellow of Monash University.

John is an entrepreneur. He built companies in the marine industry, property development and media industries, including co-founding and launching a digital media company on NASDAQ in the United States.

He was chairman and president of Swimming Australia from 2013 until October 2020.

He led what could be considered the greatest turn around in Australian Olympic history when as chairman in 2013, he took over a largely dysfunctional organisation following the London Olympics with one gold medal, to become by the 2021 Tokyo Olympics the most successful Australian Olympic swim team of all time with 9 gold medals and 20 medals in total.

John is chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, whose members are the Legends of Australian sport.

He is Patron of the inaugural Australian Youth and Women America’s Cup challenge, set to revolutionize the world of sailing.

A Legend of the International America’s Cup Hall of Fame and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, John continues to mentor young aspiring Olympians and business start-up founders.

He still competes at the highest level, and loves it.

John Bertrand Talks About

Building high performance teams