SUSAN ALBERTI, AC
Philanthropist
Australia's leading philanthropic donor towards diabetes research, Susan Alberti, is one of the nation's most successful businesswomen. She has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "eminent service to the community" as a fundraiser, advocate, mentor and role model. 
The Susan Alberti Medical Research Foundation has raised millions of dollars towards prevention and cure for type one diabetes, the disease that first struck her daughter Danielle as a 12-year-old.
With other activist parents, Dr Alberti helped found Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Australia after liaising with its United States counterpart.
Danielle died aged 32 on a flight to Melbourne in 2001 for a kidney transplant.
Dr Alberti had pledged that her daughter's death would "not be in vain".
Professor Paul Zimmet, of the Diabetes Institute, calls her a philanthropic "foundation of one".