Christy Shaffer

With over 20 years of experience in the life science industry, Christy is a seasoned entrepreneur and biotech executive. Following her career as a clinical scientist, international project leader and Associate Director of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Burroughs Wellcome Co., she joined Inspire Pharmaceuticals in 1995 as the first, full-time employee. She was responsible for raising over $300 million in capital for the company, including taking the company public in 2000. As President and CEO, Christy grew the company from 20 scientists to nearly 250 employees with revenues of over $100 million. Under her leadership, Inspire was named as “Best Place to Work for Scientists” by the Scientist magazine, and “Best Place to Work in North Carolina.” Christy retired from Inspire in March, 2010 and the company was acquired by Merck in 2011. In addition to being the Chair at Graybug Vision, Christy is currently the Managing Director of Hatteras Discovery and serves on three other Hatteras portfolio company boards: Clearside Biomedical, G1 Therapeutics and Kinodyn. Christy is a receptor pharmacologist by training, earning her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 1985. She received her post-doctoral training at the Chicago Medical School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.