Lynn Bertholet
Lynn Bertholet (born 14 July 1959 in Lausanne) is a Swiss bank executive, former photomodel, and transgender rights advocate. She was born Pierre-André Bertholet and began life in a male-presenting identity. She publicly transitioned in 2015 and calls that moment her “second birth.” She has since become a leading voice for easier official recognition of trans identities in Switzerland and the French-speaking world.
She studied at HEC Lausanne, earning a Master’s degree in Political Economy in 1983, and later completed an executive program at IMD in 1994. In 2019 she earned a certificate in Leadership for Executive LGBT from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her banking career included work at UBS in Geneva, the Banque Hypothécaire which merged into the Banque cantonale de Genève (BCGE), where she led Real Estate and Construction. She taught at the Geneva School of Management and helped create a university certificate in Compliance Management at the University of Geneva. From 2011 to 2020 she was deputy director of a private bank in Geneva and a member of its US program team. Since 2019 she has been a board member and treasurer of Égides, an international Francophone alliance for equality and diversity based in Montreal.
In 2018 she co-founded ÉPICÈNE, a public-interest charity that supports trans people, and she serves as its chair. In 2015 she obtained new identity papers in Geneva, before facial surgery, and in 2017 she had facial reconstruction funded by her health insurer after a lengthy legal process. Her experience has driven her to push for better medical, family, and social support for trans people. In September 2020, under her leadership, ÉPICÈNE published a book called TRANS* about the journeys of people living with trans identity. Bertholet also serves on Geneva’s advisory bodies related to LGBT issues, health, and prevention. She remains active in promoting inclusion and equal rights for trans people.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:47 (CET).