John Clarke has a 35 year record of early-stage venture capital investment success.  John co-founded Cardinal Partners in 1997 and currently serves as a Managing Partner of the firm. John leads Cardinal’s life sciences investment efforts and has had an extraordinary record of success.  John led the firm’s investment in Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:CBST), Momenta Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:MNTA), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ALNY), Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:SIRT) and Verastem (Nasdaq:VSTM).  John also spearheaded Cardinal’s investment in and served as a director for: TechRx Corporation (acquired by NDCHealth) and Visicu (Nasdaq:EICU – acquired by Phillips Electronics).  John currently serves on the Board of Directors for Cardinal portfolio companies Abide Therapeutics, aTyr Pharma, Ivenix , and Vividion Therapeutics, as well as Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

John entered the venture industry in 1982 with DSV Partners, a pioneer venture capital fund formed in 1968. John led DSV’s health care and life sciences efforts, and was a co-founder and served as interim CEO of numerous successful companies including Alkermes (Nasdaq:ALKS), Arris Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ARRS), DNX (Nasdaq:DNXX) and Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:CBST).  As a managing partner at DSV in that firm’s latter years, John led the firm’s evolution into Cardinal Partners.

John has served on the National Venture Capital Association’s Board of Directors where he was Chairman of its Regulatory Committee and Membership Committee.  John was a founding director of the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group as well as its past President and Chairman.  John is a past member of the Board of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Penn Venture Group.  He has served as a member of the University of Pennsylvania Advisory Panel on Technology Transfer.  John served as a Trustee of Hands Together, a non-profit organization that provides health care and education support to the needy in Haiti from 1997-2017.  Prior to his venture capital career, John worked for the General Electric Company in various sales and marketing positions.

John received his B.A. in Economics and Biology from Harvard University and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.