Clay B. Thorp co-founded Hatteras in 2001 with the launch of seed-stage Hatteras Venture Partners I, L.P. (HVP I). The fund has a top decile IRR and has returned approximately 150% of its capital to its limited partners. Under HVP I, served as CEO and Chairman of Synthematix, Inc., a chemistry informatics company that was acquired in April 2005 by Symyx Technologies (SMMX) for $13 million in cash. This represented a 7 times return for the fund.

Clay is a co-founder of Phase Bioscience, Inc. He was also the co-founder and head of corporate development for Novalon Pharmaceutical Corporation, where he led financing efforts and was head of business development from inception until Novalon's sale to Karo Bio for $106.7 million in May of 2000. Prior to Novalon, Clay was the co-founder and president of Xanthon, Inc., a bioinformatics company with electro-chemical detection technology for direct analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins.

Clay holds a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in mathematics and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Clay currently serves as Chairman of Pathfinder Therapeutics, on the board of Phase Bioscience and ArtusLabs, and as a board observer for Respirics.