Karen Adams

Karen Adams is a finance executive with more than 35 years of experience, the last 20 focused on life sciences and technology. She began her career as an Internal Auditor at International Paper Company and later served as Assistant Controller at Millennium Pharmaceuticals during its merger with COR Therapeutics. She earned a BS in Management with a major in Finance from Boston College.

In 1993 she founded KJA Associates, LLC, a consultancy providing outsourced/fractional CFO services and senior financial counsel — accounting, finance, and operations — to early-stage companies and firms in high-growth or transitional modes. Through KJA she has worked with a broad range of biotech and medical-device ventures, including Surface Logix, Compound Therapeutics, Galenea, BG Medicine, Micell Technologies, Bioptigen, Contego Medical, VeloBio, Midnight Pharma, Emergo Therapeutics, and Target PharmaSolutions.

As a serial biotech CFO she has been part of the management teams responsible for building and selling multiple companies: Addrenex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shionogi Pharma, 2009), Neuronex (acquired by Acorda Therapeutics, 2012), and Aerial BioPharma — whose ADX-N05 asset was sold to Jazz Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Her core contributions center on financial forecasting models for fundraising and operating budgets, establishing business infrastructure, and overseeing risk management.

Today she serves as Chief Financial Officer of Arrivo BioVentures, LLC, a Morrisville, NC biopharmaceutical company developing disease-modifying therapies (including programs in major depressive disorder and severe acute pancreatitis) via licensing partnerships with institutions such as Mayo Clinic and Daiichi Sankyo, and backed by investors including Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Orlando Health Ventures, and Rex Health Ventures.

• Works at the seed / early stage, embedding as a fractional or full CFO to help founders build the financial foundation needed to raise and scale.
• Sector concentration in life sciences — biotech, biopharma, and medical devices — reflecting two decades of specialization, with adjacent experience in technology and software.
• Value-add is operational and financial rather than passive capital: fundraising models, operational budgets, business structure, and risk management for companies in high-growth or transitional modes.
• Track record oriented toward building companies to a clear exit (three biotech exits via M&A), signaling a preference for capital-efficient, milestone-driven paths to acquisition.
• Note: public sources document her as an early-stage financial executive and consultant; specific personal angel check sizes or a formal fund are not publicly disclosed.