Executive Committee

Michael Clayman, M.D. is a co-founder of Flexion Therapeutics and has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and as one of our directors since our inception in 2007. Dr. Clayman also serves as the Chairman of the board of directors of both Anokion SA and Ribometrix Inc., both private biopharmaceutical companies. Previously, Dr. Clayman had a lengthy career at Eli Lilly and Company, where he was most recently Vice President, Lilly Research Laboratories, and General Manager of Chorus, Lilly’s early-phase development accelerator. During his career at Lilly, Dr. Clayman also led its Global Regulatory Affairs division, the Cardiovascular Discovery Research and Clinical Investigation, Research and Development at Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, a medical device subsidiary of Lilly, the Internal Medicine Division, the Lilly Clinic, Lilly’s dedicated Phase 1 unit, and served as Chair of Lilly’s Bioethics Committee. Prior to his tenure at Lilly, Dr. Clayman was an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research centered on the immunopathogenesis of renal disease. Dr. Clayman is the recipient of the Physician Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Clayman earned a B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Following an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Moffitt Hospitals, Dr. Clayman completed clinical and research fellowships in Nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Arkowitz brings more than 25 years of finance and operations leadership experience in the life sciences and biotechnology industries. Prior to joining Flexion, Mr. Arkowitz served as Chief Operating Officer and CFO at Visterra, Inc., where he led the finance, business development, corporate planning, manufacturing and other functions. Previously he was CFO at Mascoma Corporation, AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Idenix Pharmaceuticals and held additional leadership positions within each company. Preceding his tenure at Idenix, Mr. Arkowitz spent more than 13 years at Merck & Co., Inc. where he held roles of increasing responsibility, including Vice President and Controller of the U.S. operations, Controller of the global research and development division, and CFO of the Canadian subsidiary. Mr. Arkowitz currently serves on the board of directors for two public companies, Yumanity Therapeutics and F-star Therapeutics. He obtained his B.A. in mathematics at Brandeis University and his M.B.A. in finance at Columbia University Business School.

Dr. Kelley has over 25 years of clinical, academic and industry medical affairs experience. Most recently, Dr. Kelley served as Flexion’s Vice President of Medical Affairs. Before joining Flexion in 2016, Dr. Kelley held the position of Vice President, Global Medical Affairs at Sanofi where he oversaw global data generation, data dissemination and KOL engagement strategy for the Biosurgery portfolio including Synvisc^®, an injectable product for osteoarthritis of the knee. Prior to Sanofi, Dr. Kelley led medical affairs functions at Covidien Respiratory & Monitoring Solutions and at Aspect Medical Systems. Dr. Kelley earned his B.S. and M.S. from Stanford University and his M.D. from University of California, San Francisco. He completed his residency and fellowship in Anesthesiology at UCSF and obtained board certifications in Anesthesiology and Pain Management. Dr. Kelley maintains a clinical practice at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Ms. Layman joins Flexion with more than 25 years of commercial experience within the life science industry. Over the course of her career Ms. Layman has held positions of increasing responsibility within the sales, marketing, commercial and market access functions. Most recently, Ms. Layman served as Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing at Lantheus Medical Imaging where she was a member of the executive leadership team. During her nearly 10-year tenure, Ms. Layman was responsible for global sales, marketing, communications, health policy, pricing and reimbursement, commercial development and international operations. Prior to Lantheus, she served as Executive Marketing Director at Forest Labs (now Allergan), where she led the cardiovascular franchise through the successful launch of its lead product, Bystolic. Previously Ms. Layman held senior marketing positions at Altus Pharmaceuticals (founded as subsidiary of Vertex) and Sepracor (now Sunovion), where she launched Xopenex MDI and Lunesta, building and integrating the market access function across the business. She began her career with TAP Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology) where her positions ranged from sales representative to National Marketing Director, Gastroenterology and Oncology.

Ms. Layman holds a B.A. from Ithaca College and an executive M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mark Levine has more than 20 years of experience counseling companies on general corporate matters, including: strategic corporate development; complex commercial transactions; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; licensing agreements and corporate partnerships; financings; securities law; corporate governance; and regulatory compliance. Prior to joining Flexion, Mr. Levine served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and a member of the executive management team of Minerva Neurosciences, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company. Mr. Levine has also served in senior legal positions at athenahealth, Inc., a network-based health internet technology company; Clinical Data, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Forest Laboratories, Inc.; Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., a renewable energy company; and Xpedior Incorporated, an internet consulting company.

Mr. Levine holds a B.A. from Binghamton University, SUNY, and a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

Dr. Muzikant joins Flexion with 18 years of hands-on leadership experience in biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals companies, and consulting firms. Most recently, he was Vice President, Business Development at Synta Pharmaceuticals, where he led the strategic transaction process culminating in a merger with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, and subsequently negotiated out-licensing agreements for Synta’s oncology programs. Prior to Synta, Dr. Muzikant held business development leadership positions at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inotek Pharmaceuticals, EPIX Pharmaceuticals, and Predix Pharmaceuticals, and also performed transaction/strategic advisory work for biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients with Locust Walk Partners. Prior to moving into business development, Dr. Muzikant led an anti-arrhythmia drug discovery program at Predix targeting ion channels. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Duke University, and a B.S. in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Ms. Wentworth brings more than 20 years of experience in both domestic and international Regulatory Affairs that spans early and late development across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Flexion, Ms. Wentworth served as Vice President, Clinical, Regulatory and Quality at Agenus, Inc., where she was responsible for leading all global regulatory and clinical development efforts for nearly 10 years. Previously, Ms. Wentworth led the Regulatory and Quality function for Genelabs Technologies, Inc., where she was responsible for advancing their lead program through Phase 3 development and into the registration phase with FDA and EMA. Ms. Wentworth also held positions of increasing responsibility within Regulatory Affairs at Genzyme. Ms. Wentworth holds a B.S. in pre-veterinary medicine from the University of New Hampshire.

Ms. Willwerth has more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical development. Most recently, Ms. Willwerth served as Flexion’s Senior Vice President of Program Management and Strategy, and in her expanded role she continues to lead the planning and execution of our strategic vision and business priorities and have accountability for Flexion’s portfolio development efforts and Human Resources activities. Ms. Willwerth joined Flexion Therapeutics from Viacell, where she was a member of the company’s Executive Management team and served as Vice President, Product Development, with management responsibility for the company’s interdisciplinary cellular therapy and fertility preservation development programs. She previously served as Senior Director, Product Development at The Medicines Company, where she focused on cardiovascular therapy clinical and product development. Prior to that, she held a number of ascendant clinical operations positions at Astra Pharmaceuticals and Biopure Corporation. Ms. Willwerth holds a B.S. in Biology, with high distinction, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.