Executive Insights Series – Life Sciences Finances: Keys for Attracting Investment – From Series A to IPO

Sean McClain is the Founder and CEO of Absci, a leading generative AI Drug Creation company with a mission to create better biologics for patients, faster. 

Sean embodies entrepreneurial spirit, having built Absci from basement lab to a publicly traded company and continuing to strive towards his vision to create therapeutics at the click of a button. Under his leadership, Absci scaled to over 200 employees, raised over $525M in capital, established a growing number of industry-leading partnerships, and built an Integrated Drug Creation Platform that merges bleeding-edge generative AI models with proprietary high-throughput wet-lab data. 

Sean studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Arizona and has been the recipient of numerous recognitions for his entrepreneurship and innovation. He serves as a board member for the Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute, and Life Science Washington

Michael Fishback is the Executive Director in Life Sciences at JPMorganChase, a role they have held since 2024. Prior to this, Michael served as the Director of Venture Debt Lending at MUFG from 2021 to 2024 and held senior positions at Silicon Valley Bank and KeyBank Real Estate Capital. Their earlier career includes experience as a Vice President at Seattle Bank and various roles at Comerica Bank, showcasing a strong background in finance and banking. Michael earned both a Bachelor of Arts in Finance, International Business, and Spanish, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business.