William Stilley

William B. Stilley is a life-sciences entrepreneur and operator based in Charlottesville, Virginia. He co-founded Adial Pharmaceuticals in December 2010 and has served as its Chief Executive Officer and President, and as a member of its board of directors since inception. Adial (NASDAQ: ADIL) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing AD04, a genetically targeted therapeutic candidate investigated for alcohol use disorder and other addictive disorders. He led the company through its 2018 IPO on Nasdaq.

Before founding Adial, Stilley was Vice President of Business Development & Strategic Projects at Clinical Data, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDA) / its PGxHealth division, where he handled licensing and M&A transactions and was involved in the management of Phase 3 clinical trials and commercial product launches, including the antidepressant Viibryd®. Over his career he has advised public and private companies on financing and M&A transactions and has served as COO and CFO of several private companies. Before entering business, he served as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Stilley also founded Adovate, LLC (formerly Adenomed, LLC), which he formed to acquire, fund and advance the assets and business of Purnovate, Inc. — an adenosine-chemistry drug-development platform originally built as an Adial subsidiary. Through Adovate he focuses on inventing and developing best-in-class adenosine receptor agonists and antagonists targeting a range of human diseases. He previously served as co-founder and CEO of Purnovate.

He earned an MBA with honors from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and a B.S. in Commerce/Marketing from UVA's McIntire School of Commerce. He guest-lectures at Darden on life-science company management and has served on the advisory board of Virginia Bio (VirginiaBIO), the statewide biotechnology organization.

• Invests primarily as an angel / seed-stage backer, typically in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, drug discovery, and biotech — the sectors where he operates as a founder and executive.
• Strong local (Charlottesville / Central Virginia) bias, participating alongside other regional angels and the Charlottesville biotech ecosystem (e.g., CvilleBioHub).
• As an operator-investor, his value-add skews toward drug development, clinical-trial management, licensing/M&A, and financing strategy rather than passive capital.
• Backs science-driven, IP-anchored therapeutic platforms — mirroring his own work translating academic/licensed compounds (AD04, Purnovate adenosine platform) toward the clinic.