Comprehend Systems Expands Executive Team

Lee Black and Ben McGraw have been appointed to Comprehend System’s executive team to support growth in adoption of its cloud-based clinical data insights software. Mr. Black and Mr. McGraw bring business development experience spanning enterprise technology and life sciences, and will lead the company’s sales and marketing strategy targeting pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device companies, and CROs.
 
“Every life sciences executive we’ve spoken with over the past two years has jumped at the chance to leverage the cloud for clinical data insights, further validating our approach to the market and our ability to help sponsors run smarter, faster and safer trials,” said Rick Morrison, chief executive officer of Comprehend Systems. “With Lee and Ben’s sales and marketing expertise, Comprehend will be well-positioned to build on our momentum and continue to fill a critical gap in the life sciences industry for cloud-based clinical data insights.”
 
Mr. Black is a 15-year sales veteran with a proven record of success selling SaaS and IaaS solutions into Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Black previously served as director of sales engineering at Meraki, which was sold to Cisco Systems in 2013. Prior to Meraki, he served as director of sales at Motorola Solutions, where he led a team focused on global managed services. He also held several leadership roles at Motorola, including a sales engineer role at Wireless Valley Communications, Inc. prior to its acquisition by Motorola.  
 
Prior to joining the company, Mr. McGraw served as director of life science industry solutions at TIBCO Software, Inc., where he led market strategy and development of the TIBCO Spotfire life sciences industry product. Previously, he spent six years at Oracle, Inc. as manager of pharmaceutical product management, where he drove development, marketing and sales for an extensive product portfolio. Mr. McGraw has also held positions with Aptuit Informatics and Valentis.
 
In July, Comprehend partnered with Sequoia Capital and raised $8.4 million in Series A funding, enabling the company to expand its solution development. Earlier this year, the company launched its quick-access solution for clinical- and operational-data insights through its online, self-service portal.