J. Lyell Clarke
J. Lyell Clarke is Chairman of The Clarke Group, a third-generation family-owned public health products and services company striving to elevate and transform the science of vector control through the lens of sustainability and innovation. Lyell served Clarke as president and CEO for close to three decades and assumed the Chairman position in 2020. He passed the Presidency and CEO role to Allen Gent on January 1, 2024.
Lyell inherited the foundations of a strong but small service and distribution business from his father and grandfather and evolved it into the world’s largest company dedicated to public health vector control innovation. Over the course of his tenure at the helm of Clarke, Lyell guided it from a “tired old distribution company” towards a flourishing public health company that puts the company’s greater purpose as agents of world health benefit, an inherent sustainability mindset, its coworkers, and its served communities at the center.
In addition to his Chairmanship of The Clarke Group, Lyell serves on three boards that allow him to help other small-to-medium-sized companies recognize and harness their potential for positive impact on people and the planet: The Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH; privately held Weigel’s Farm Stores, Inc. based in Powell, TN; and Ball Horticultural in West Chicago, IL.
Lyell earned his Bachelor of Science in Entomology from the University of Kentucky and received his Ph.D. in Entomology from lowa State University. He began his career with Clarke as a Control Consultant in 1986, and after gaining a solid grounding in the business, he became the company’s vice president. In 1996, upon his father’s retirement, he stepped into the role of President and CEO and assumed the Chairman role for The Clarke group in 2020, following the passing of his mother, Mrs. Mary Kemp Clarke.