Built on Experience, Adaptability and Relationships

For 25 years, Compli has helped life sciences organizations navigate the complexities of commissioning, qualification, validation and regulatory compliance. Since its founding in 2001, the company has worked through changing technologies, evolving regulations and increasingly complex projects while maintaining a consistent focus on its clients and the people behind the work. As Compli celebrates this milestone, the stories of longtime team members offer a look at how the company has grown, what has remained constant and what will carry Compli into its next 25 years.

Growing Through Experience and Opportunity

For many Compli employees, a career with the company has been shaped by opportunities to take on new challenges. Xiang Zhou, an engineering lead who works primarily in the field, joined Compli more than two decades ago after connecting with then co-owner Steve Wattenmaker about a validation engineering opportunity in Indianapolis. What began as an interesting project became a career defined by variety, adaptability and continuous learning. Rather than remaining in one specific role, Xiang has taken on responsibilities based on what each project requires, giving her the opportunity to work across different types of assignments and continue building her knowledge throughout her career.

“I need to be whatever role that project needs me to be,” Xiang said. “It can change significantly between projects.”

That same opportunity for growth has been a consistent part of the experience for Ethan Dunn and Jaime Meier-Talabac. Both are legacy GBA employees who became part of Compli following GBA’s acquisition of the company in 2021. Ethan first encountered the life sciences side of the business through an internship in what was then GBA’s validation department before returning to join the company full-time. Since then, his responsibilities have grown from individual contributor work to leading projects, teams and scopes of work. Jaime similarly began her career as a validation and process engineer before taking on increasingly larger projects and eventually managing a growing portfolio of work. Their experiences reflect a company where growth has often happened organically, with employees learning through their work and taking on new responsibilities as opportunities arise.

An Evolution Rooted in Adaptability

“While you’re in it, it’s very stressful to meet deadlines,” she said. “But coming out of it, I think that adds to our knowledge base for Compli.”

That ability to learn, adapt and apply experience to the next challenge has also shaped how Compli approaches growth. Jaime noted that the company has been intentional about pursuing the right opportunities rather than simply pursuing growth for its own sake. By aligning projects with the capabilities of the team and the needs of its clients, Compli has been able to grow steadily while maintaining the people and expertise necessary to deliver quality work.

Staying Connected as the Company Grows

One of the most notable aspects of Compli’s evolution is that its growth has not come at the expense of its small-company culture. Xiang has been with Compli for more than 20 years and has seen the company become part of GBA, yet she says many of the qualities that initially made Compli appealing have remained.

“I think even after becoming an affiliate of GBA, we still maintain a very small-company culture,” Xiang said.

“Honesty,” Ethan said when asked what clients value most about working with Compli.

That honesty is part of a larger approach to partnership. Jaime explained that Compli works to understand the larger goal of a project rather than focusing only on its individual scope. By understanding what the client is ultimately trying to accomplish, the team can apply its experience and lessons learned from other projects to help identify practical solutions.

A Culture Built Around People

The technical work Compli performs is only part of what has kept people connected to the company over the years. The team also described a culture built on trust, flexibility and an understanding that employees have lives outside of work.

Jaime described Compli as a place where people are treated as whole people rather than simply employees. That means giving team members flexibility when circumstances require it while maintaining the expectation that work will be completed well and clients’ needs will continue to be met. For her, that balance creates trust within the team and allows people to support one another when priorities shift.

“When you have that trust there and we’re able to ebb and flow back and forth, I think that works really, really well,” Jaime said.

That culture is not something that belongs to one person or comes exclusively from leadership. As the Compli team continues to grow, Jaime believes maintaining that environment is a responsibility shared by everyone. Ethan has experienced a similar evolution in his own career, learning not only how to lead projects but also how to help reinforce the values Compli wants to represent to both its clients and its employees.

That shared responsibility is an important part of Compli’s history. The company has been shaped by the contributions of people in a wide range of roles, with each person bringing different experiences and perspectives to the work. As Ethan reflected, everyone’s input has value, regardless of position or role.

Work With a Meaningful Impact

Compli’s work can involve highly technical processes, detailed documentation and complex regulatory requirements, but the purpose behind that work extends far beyond the project itself. Compli’s clients are working to advance products and technologies that can ultimately affect human and animal health, giving the team a direct connection to outcomes that can have a lasting impact.

For Jaime, one of the projects that has stayed with her involved a confidential client working through the final stages of clinical trials for a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy in children. Although her individual role on the project was relatively small, seeing how the collective work of the team contributed to bringing an important treatment closer to patients made a lasting impression.

Ethan sees that sense of purpose throughout Compli’s work. Each project has a defined goal, and the team’s role is to help clients reach that goal by providing the expertise and support needed to move products, technologies and processes forward. For him, that is part of what makes the work rewarding, knowing that the details the team focuses on can ultimately contribute to outcomes that matter to people around the world.

The same sense of purpose can be found in the relationships Compli builds with its clients. Jaime recalled a project where a client was transitioning from a legacy process in the medical device space to products subject to pharmaceutical regulations while also moving from manual processes toward automation. The project showed a significant technological and cultural shift, but what stood out most to her was the strength of the team working together. Everyone understood the shared goals, brought different strengths to the table and worked together to move the project forward.

Looking Toward the Next 25 Years

As Compli looks ahead, team members consistently returned to the people who will shape the company’s future. Jaime is excited to continue building relationships with both longtime and newer members of the team and to see how those relationships develop as Compli grows. Ethan similarly looks forward to seeing how the company evolves while continuing to provide clients with the expertise they need, whether a project is large or small.

For Xiang, her hope is that Compli continues to maintain the flexibility, accessibility and small-company culture that have helped distinguish it throughout her career. She believes those qualities allow the team to respond to client needs while maintaining strong communication and quality in their work.

After 25 years, Compli’s history is ultimately a story of people. It is a story of employees who have grown into new roles, teams that have learned from difficult projects, clients who have returned for new challenges and a culture that has adapted while holding onto the qualities that matter most. As Ethan reflected, the company’s success over the past 25 years has been the result of contributions from people across the organization, with each person playing a role in helping clients find the solutions they need.

The next 25 years will undoubtedly bring new technologies, new challenges and new opportunities. But with a foundation built on experience, adaptability, honest partnerships and people who care about the work they do, Compli is positioned to continue building on the relationships and knowledge that have shaped its first quarter century.