Clay is an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. Since 1995, Clay has co-founded six companies in the life science arena and co-founded Hatteras in 2001 with the launch of seed-stage Hatteras Venture Partners I, L.P. (HVP I). Since HVP I, Clay has been instrumental in building the Hatteras firm with the addition of three additional venture capital funds and has led investments in a range of life science companies, including biopharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, and research informatics. Clay was the lead investor and led the strategic transaction process for ArtusLabs that resulted in its sale to PerkinElmer in 2011. He was a co-founder and served as CEO and Chairman of Synthematix, Inc., a chemistry informatics company that was acquired in April 2005 by Symyx Technologies (SMMX). Clay is a co-founder and former Chairman of PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He was 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 currently serves as Lead Director of Pathfinder Therapeutics and on the boards of PhaseBio, GeneCentric, the Device Innovation Group (DIG), and Clearside Biomedical. He 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.