We are a team of seasoned biotechnology professionals with significant experience developing and launching leading pharmaceutical products.
David J. Matlin
Chairman
Mr. Matlin was the Chief Executive Office of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC, a global private equity firm, which he co-founded in 2002. David was a former Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston and also a founding partner of Merrion Group, LP. He currently serves on the public boards of MedTech Acquisition Partners (NASDAQ: MTAC) and U.S. Well Service (NASDAQ: USWS), as well as privately held Dermasensor, Inc., Pristine Surgical, LLC, Traffk, LLC, and Empyrean Neuroscience, Inc. David holds a JD from the Law School of the University of California at Los Angeles and a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Rob Etherington
CEO/President
Mr. Etherington brings nearly 30 years of sales, marketing and leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry to Clene. Prior to joining Clene as CEO, Mr. Etherington worked for Actelion Pharmaceuticals, which was the largest biopharmaceutical company based in the EU until Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals acquired the company in 2017. He initially joined Actelion as founding Director of Marketing in 2000, the same year the company went public, and went on to hold various roles of increasing responsibility. Mr. Etherington served as the first U.S. commercial employee, leading U.S. commercial operations and serving as Chair of the U.S. Commercial Strategic team where he was responsible for five marketed drugs. Prior to Actelion, Mr. Etherington began his pharmaceutical career with a number of sales and marketing roles at Parke-Davis, a division of Pfizer, culminating in a Team Leader position that oversaw the drug Lipitor. As the founding CEO of Clene, Mr. Etherington has raised more than $150M in equity financings, and has driven Clene’s focus on neurodegenerative diseases.
Alison Mosca
Board Member
Alison Mosca is a Managing Director & CEO of Kensington Capital Holdings. Prior to founding Kensington Capital Holdings, Alison built a multi-family office within Audax Group, a leading middle market private equity firm. Previously, Alison spent several years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its Private Client Group & Audit Assurance. Alison is a Certified Public Accountant, she received her MS with distinction in Personal Financial Planning from Bentley University and her BS, cum laude with university honors program distinction, in Accounting from Northeastern University.
John Stevens, MD
Board Member
John Stevens, MD, currently serves as the chairman and CEO of Heartflow, Inc, a provider of noninvasive cardiovascular imaging technology, and as the managing partner of Headwaters Capital Partners. John is also the founder of the nonprofit NGO KaeMe.org, which advocates for orphaned children in Ghana, West Africa. John was a practicing adult and pediatric cardiac surgeon at Stanford University Hospital and Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital in California and earned a medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Jonathon Gay
Board Member
Mr. Gay is a Managing Partner at Kensington-SV Global Innovations LP (KSV), a growth stage investment firm which he co-founded in 2018. Prior to joining KSV, Mr. Gay was Managing Partner and co-led the investment strategy of Kensington Capital Ventures, where he oversaw transaction and execution of deals and monitored portfolio companies. Previous to co-leading KCV, he was a principal at KCH, a single-family office where he focused on PE/VC fund and direct investment strategies. Prior to joining KCH, Mr. Gay worked as a Vice President at HGGC in Palo Alto, California. While at HGGC, Mr. Gay performed functions in all aspects of the firm’s private equity practice including fund raising, investment sourcing, investment analysis and deal execution. Prior to joining HGGC, Mr. Gay served as an Operations Analyst at Sorenson Capital. Mr. Gay received his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Mr. Gay was selected to serve as a director due to his investment experience in healthcare and biotech industries; expertise in venture, growth equity and late-stage investments; and proven business acumen.
Reed N Wilcox
Board Member
Reed Wilcox is the President of Southern Virginia University. Reed co-founded Clene Nanomedicine. Prior to Clene Nanomedicine, President Wilcox was co-founder and senior managing director of General Resonance. Earlier, Reed co-founded The Flagship Group, worked as CEO of The Lifelike Company, served a three-year mission as president of the France Marseille/Toulouse Missions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was a worldwide partner at The Boston Consulting Group. Reed earned his bachelor degree in economics at Brigham Young University and his JD/MBA from Harvard University.
Shal Jacobovitz
Board Member
Shal Jacobovitz is the chief executive officer of CIVI Bio, a privately held biopharmaceutical, and the former CEO of the American College of Cardiology.
In this role at the ACC, Jacobovitz led the ~50,000 member organization in its mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health. Prior to joining the ACC, Jacobovitz served as president of Actelion Pharmaceuticals U.S., a biopharmaceutical company specializing in orphan cardiopulmonary therapies. He has also held positions at F. Hoffmann La Roche, Abbott Canada, Nordic Labs and Marion Merrill Dow — now known as Sanofi — in Canada. Shal earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology at Western University in Canada.
Vallerie V. McLaughlin, MD
Board Member
Vallerie V. McLaughlin, MD, is the Kim A. Eagle MD Endowed Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She received her medical degree from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, and completed her internal medicine residency at University of Michigan Hospitals and cardiology fellowship at Northwestern University. Dr. McLaughlin is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American College of Chest Physicians, and American Heart Association (AHA). She has been the Principal Investigator of several major clinical trials of drug therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension and has published numerous papers in this field. Dr. McLaughlin is an editorial board member of Chest, a Guest Editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and past Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Pulmonary Hypertension. She is a past Chair of the Scientific Leadership Committee and immediate past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, has chaired the American College of Cardiology Foundation/AHA Clinical Expert Consensus Document Committee for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, and is Chair of the Cardiovascular Medical Research and Education Fund Steering Committee.