Board of Directors
The Directors
The Cooper Foundation is governed by a board of directors who have been nominated to that position. At present, there are seven directors, three of whom are ‘Lay Directors’, whilst four are either doctors or academics involved in various fields of research. Of the founding directors, three remain on the board. They are Al Rosenstrauss, William Kevin Cahill and Dr Thomas Cromer.
Al Rosenstauss OAM - Chairman
Al was instrumental in the formation of the Foundation.
Having established a close personal and working relationship with Mrs Cooper, he played a large part in encouraging Mrs Cooper to establish a medical research foundation in her name. This came to fruition on 13 January 1984 (co-incidentally his 59th birthday) and on her death, some three months later, he and Kevin Cahill became the executors of Mrs Cooper’s estate which she had bequeathed to the Foundation. The rest, as they say, is history.
Having grown the income of the Foundation from less than $80,000 per annum to a multi-million dollar figure today, he was awarded an OAM in the Australia Day Honours list in 2008.
William Kevin Cahill – Former Chairman
Kevin had involvement with Mrs Cooper prior to his appointment as a director and Founding Chairman of the Foundation.
Kevin has now largely retired from his active legal practice in Bondi Junction, however, he regularly attends his office and maintains an active interest in all aspects of endeavour of the Foundation.
Directors appointed since:
Jeffrey Rosenstrauss
One of the Lay Directors, Jeff’s involvement with the Foundation dates to September 1979, when with Al, he was introduced to Mrs Cooper at her home in Randwick, where she requested assistance with rental collections following the death of Mr Cooper some 9 months earlier.
Jeff’s background is in property valuation and asset management, having formerly served as a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute. He is currently responsible for much of the day to day management of the Foundation’s assets and the maintenance and reconstruction programme of the Foundation’s property portfolio.
Appointed to the Board of Directors 13 July 1999
Dr Ross Paterson
Ross, now retired, was a practising general practitioner with his surgery located at Maroubra, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
Since retirement, Ross has diligently attended directors meetings and contributed in scoring the annual grant applications together with the other board members.
Appointed to the Board of Directors on 30 October 2000
Professor John Rasko
BSc(Med), MBBS(Hons), PhD, FRCPA, FRACP - Professor Rasko is a Haematologist who directs Cell and Molecular Therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and heads the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Centenary Institute, University of Sydney. His was the first formal appointment in clinical gene therapy in Australia.
Professor Rasko is the immediate past President of the Australasian Gene Therapy Society, serves on the International Committee of the American Society of Gene Therapy (2004-10) and is the regional Vice President - Australasia of the International Society for Cell Therapy. He chairs the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee of the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator for the Australian government.
Professor Rasko has a productive track record with over one hundred papers published in genetics and gene therapy, experimental haematology and cell biology. His research has been successful in uncovering new mechanisms of leukemia, clinical trials of new biological therapies for cancer and bleeding disorders, hemopoietic stem cell mobilisation and transplantation.
Appointed to the Board of Directors 18 December 2008
Professor Brian Dean
HND App. Biol., MSc., PhD., FSB, CBiol - Professor Brian Dean is a biochemist and is currently an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Rebecca L. Cooper Research Laboratories at the Mental Health Research Institute in Melbourne. Professor Dean is a Councillor, Member if the Education Committee and Pacific Asia Committee member of Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologium which is a worldwide organisation focussed on the study of treatments for brain disorders. More locally, Professor Dean is currently the President of the Melbourne Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. This Society focuses on understanding how the brain functions.
Professor Dean has published more than 170 papers on the pathology of major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorders and the mechanisms by which drugs act to lessen the symptoms of those disorders. Recent findings from this research have identified a potential biomarker for a sub-set of subjects with schizophrenia and evidence to suggest that inflammatory pathways may be involved in causing symptoms of depression.
Appointed to the Board of Directors on 2 November 2009
As with all organisations, nothing happens without the ‘backroom’ workers seeing that the cogs are oiled and the machine is in gear. The Foundation too has its “backroom” worker:
Val Rosenstrauss
Val knew Mrs Cooper and with Al, was very involved with her welfare in the several years before Mrs Cooper’s death.
It is Val who collates all of the applications for research grants, bundling them in order of category so that it make sense to the Directors, who have to read and score them. It also falls to Val to inform both the successful and unsuccessful candidates of their result.
Val is instrumental in putting together the highlight of the Foundations year, the Annual Dinner. She single handedly organises the table seating, the name tags and the place setting names and oversees the event management and she tolerates Al’s interference with the running of the dinner.
Without Val’s quiet work in the background, much of the activity of the Foundation just wouldn’t happen.