James Weatherly Neal, Jr. is an American investment banker, entrepreneur, political activist, and CEO of Revivo Therapeutics Inc.^[1] He is the second gay person in history to seek a Senate seat.^[2]

Early life and education

Neal was born on November 6, 1956, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978 and received a BS in business administration. In 1983, he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Career

Neal worked at merchant banks Ocean Capital Corporation and Genesis Merchant Group in the early 1990s, where he focused on raising capital for and investing in small and mid-cap healthcare, media, and technology companies. In 1996, Piper Jaffray hired Neal as managing director and co-head of its investment banking activities with life sciences companies. He resigned three years later to work for various start-up companies in an executive capacity, including serving as CEO at RxMarketplace and 451, Inc., respectively.^[1]

In 2001, he was named president of Scientia Health Group, a private investment company founded by ImClone Systems’ CEO Sam Waksal and investment partners including SoftBank. Neal was fired by Waksal in November 2001 and subsequently sued him and Scientia, alleging that “during his employment, he became aware of certain illegal and unethical conduct engaged in by Waksal”. In December 2002, Neal obtained a multi-million dollar judgment against Waksal and Scientia.^[3][4]

In 2004, he served on the National Campaign Finance Committees for General Wesley Clark and Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaigns and bundled contributions for Erskine Bowles’ 2004 North Carolina Senate race against Elizabeth Dole.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Senate and personal life

In 2007, Neal announced his candidacy for the US Senate in North Carolina, becoming the second gay person in history to seek a Senate seat.^{[2][11][12][13][14][15]} Neal was not endorsed by either of the leading national gay rights organizations, the Human Rights Campaign and the Victory Fund.^[16] A month prior to the primary, Neal and Hagan were in a statistical dead heat with the majority of voters undecided.^[17] Hagan vastly outspent Neal, who did not raise sufficient contributions to counter Hagan’s television ad campaign in the critical final month. He finished second with 19% of the votes to Hagan’s 61% in a race that also included three lesser-known candidates.^[18][19]

Neal has been an activist for the LGBTQ community. He was arrested in North Carolina’s General Assembly in 2011 and 2016 while protesting against North Carolina’s Amendment One banning same-sex marriage and HB2, the state’s controversial “bathroom bill,” respectively. He has lectured and spoken to various political, youth, and advocacy organizations and has been a contributing writer on equality, social justice, and politics in McClatchy papers in North Carolina, the Daily Beast, and the Huffington Post. He has served on numerous public and private boards of directors, including The New School, The Alliance for the Arts, the Partnership for New York City, and United Medical Industrial Group (Beijing).^[20][14][21]

References