About us

Our story

At Lightship we believe in people. Every person at Lightship contributes to our mission in improving access, choice, and equity for all people.

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We are better together.

True to our values of people, service, impact and change, Lightship cares about importance of taking care of our people along the way. From the foundation of Lightship, we have grown our team with a dispersed workforce and have the support in place we need, so we all succeed together. Learn more about our Founder, Samantha Eells, and CEO, David MacMurchy and their story on what drives them in creating and leading a people-first company.

Samantha Eells, Founder

Sam’s passion for serving people, improving health and well-being, and creative endeavors led to the foundation of Lightship. In her prior work at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and UCLA and as a founding team member at Science 37, Sam honed a skillset for creating and building ideas that keep people and their health at the center. Sam also finds inspiration in nature and connection with the environment important for driving change and purpose. In partnership with her co-founders, Lightship was started to make clinical trials accessible for everyone. Together with the Lightship team, Sam works to offer access and choice for patients so that we can improve health equity through better treatment options for all people.

David MacMurchy, CEO

David MacMurchy is focused on developing better access to healthcare and improving patients’ well-being. David is a leader in the health & life sciences sector with over two and a half decades of experience working for leading organizations. Prior to joining Lightship, David led a team of more than 9,000 delivering clinical trials across Europe, Asia and Africa at PRA Health Sciences (ICON). David helmed the Life Sciences practice as a Partner for EY (Ernst & Young) in Europe supporting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, focusing on growth, planning and technology capabilities. His career of collaborating with the world’s leading healthcare providers in the United States, Europe and China includes over 10 years with IMS Health (IQVIA) and Pfizer.