John Bertrand AO

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

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The victory was considered by the Confederation of Australian Sport as the ‘greatest team performance in 200 years of Australian sport’. 

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The victory broke 132 years of American domination, the longest running streak in modern sporting history.

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

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He has a Master of Science from MIT in Boston, graduated from Monash University with a Mechanical Engineering Honours degree, and has an Honorary Doctorate from Victoria University. He is a Vice Chancellor Professorial Fellow at Monash University.

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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. 

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He was chairman and president of Swimming Australia from 2013 until October 2020 with the simple vision of becoming world’s best in everything they undertook. Athletes, Coach’s, Administration.

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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 coming out of the London Olympics with one gold medal, to becoming the most successful Australian Olympic swim team of all time. 

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The swim teams 9 Olympic golds won in Tokyo represented over 50% of all gold medals won by the entire Olympic team across all sports.

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John is chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. He continues to mentor young aspiring Olympians and business entrepreneurs.