Stephen E. Butts

Steve is a co-founder and the CEO of Arrivo BioVentures, LLC, a drug development company located in Morrisville, NC. He has over 25 years of experience in the pharma/biotech industry with and a track record of successful fund raising, product licensing and M&A with start-up companies. Most recently, Steve was CEO of Velo Bio, a start-up company with a drug in development for severe preeclampsia. Velo was sold to AMAG Pharmaceuticals in 2018. Prior to Velo, he was co-founder, President and COO of Aerial BioPharma LLC, a drug development company that sold its lead drug for narcolepsy to Jazz Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Prior to Aerial, Steve was co-founder and Executive Vice President of Neuronex Inc, acquired by Acorda Therapeutics in December 2012. Additionally, he was an original member of the executive team at Addrenex Pharmaceuticals and played a key role in the company’s sale to Shionogi Pharma in 2009. He has also served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing at BioBehavioral Diagnostics Company, as well as assignments at Eli Lilly and Company and Braintree Laboratories.

Steve is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of EnviCor Enterprises LLC, a plastics manufacturing company located in Smithfield, NC. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Knopp Biosciences, a privately held pharmaceutical company. He serves on two not-for-profit boards. Steve is the Chair of the Board of Advisors of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Additionally, he is on the Board and the Board Executive Committee of the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED).

Steve holds a BS degree in Business Administration and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill.