Mara G. Aspinall, CEO
Mara Aspinall is a healthcare industry leader and pioneer committed to active civic involvement. She is Co-Founder and Managing Director of BlueStone Venture Partners. BlueStone is a venture firm investing in life sciences companies in the US Southwest, focused on diagnostics, devices and digital health. Aspinall also heads the Health Catalysts Group - publishing the popular Sensitive and Specific: The Testing Newsletter and the HCG Diagnostics Year in Review. During the pandemic, Aspinall emerged as a national authority on COVID testing. Aspinall is an advisor to The Rockefeller Foundation and co-author of The Foundation's reports on the COVID policy.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Abcam plc (ABC), Castle Biosciences (CSTL), DA32 (DALS), OraSure (OSUR) and Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona. Aspinall is certified in Board Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon University.
As President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a billion-dollar division of The Roche Group, (now Roche Tissue Diagnostics) Aspinall led her world-class team to new financial success, more than two dozen major instrument and assay launches as well as global leadership in companion diagnostics.
Previously, Aspinall spent 13 years at Genzyme Corporation where she served as President of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics was a leading provider of diagnostic testing and genetic counseling in the oncology and reproductive markets. Aspinall transformed the business from a small, specialized player to one of the top five laboratories in the country while setting the industry standard for quality testing. The business was sold to LabCorp for $1billion. Previously, she led Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and its transformation to an international leader in specialized pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing.
A leader in educating policymakers on healthcare issues, she served on the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Council on Genetics, Health & Society (SACGHS) in the Obama and Bush administrations. With a passion for education about the importance of diagnostics, genomics and data analytics, Aspinall co-founded the Biomedical Diagnostics program at Arizona State University, the first and only program dedicated to Diagnostics as an independent discipline. ASU awarded their first Master degrees in Diagnostics in 2015 and now have 100 students matriculating each year.
Aspinall was named Arizona Biosciences Leader of the Year by the Arizona Biotechnology Association and one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences by PharmaVOICE magazine and one of the Most Influential Corporate Board Directors by Women Inc. She started her business career at the strategic consulting firm Bain & Company. Aspinall holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.