Mario Alberto Accardi is Chief Executive Officer of Centessa Pharmaceuticals, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company following its 2026 acquisition. He previously served as President and Founder of the Orexin Program, leading strategic execution of the orexin pipeline.
Prior to Centessa, Mario founded and led Orexia Therapeutics, a neuroscience company developing orexin agonists for narcolepsy and other sleep-wake disorders, which he built through a Series A financing and multiple strategic partnerships before its acquisition by Centessa in 2021.
Earlier, Mario worked in life sciences venture capital as an Investment Associate at Entrepreneurs Fund and later as a Venture Partner at Fort Rock Capital, investing across preclinical and clinical-stage biotechnology companies. He also founded Orthonika, a medtech company spun out of Imperial College London.
Mario holds a Postgraduate qualification in Genomic Medicine, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, and a First-Class Honours MEng in Mechanical Engineering, all from Imperial College London.
