Our Team
Chief Executive Officer:
Michael Cowley
Michael Cowley is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Associate Director Research Commercialisation and Innovation in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University, Australia. He was Head of Department from 2017 to 2025., His research focuses on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders.
He received his BSc. from the University of Melbourne, and did his PhD at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, before a post-doctoral fellowship at The Vollum Institute in Oregon, USA. He was an Associate Scientist at Oregon National Primate Research Center where he pioneered the use of obese monkeys as a model for pre-clinical assessment of metabolic drugs.
In 2003 he founded Orexigen Therapeutics which listed on the NASDAQ in 2007, and led to the approval of his invention Contrave/Mysimba for weight loss in many countries. In 2008 he returned to Monash University. His current research focusses on the role of the brain in controlling blood pressure and blood glucose. He has served as CSO of Orexigen and as a director on several biotech companies and is a founder of a Lorikeet Therapeutics.
Chief Operations Officer:
Carissa Greenough
Carissa has 13 years experience in commercialisation and innovation and holds a Bachelor of Biotechnology (Medical) with first class Honours, a Master of Business (Commercialising Science and Technology), and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance and Risk Management. She has both executive and project management experience in commercialisation and innovation. In a previous Executive Management position, she managed a national team of 10 staff that created $39M of research projects, managed a $3M per annum contract, won $7M in contracts and helped scale the company from 12 to 35 staff.
