Mara Aspinall

Mara is a healthcare industry pioneer with a commitment to civic involvement and deep experience in leading genetics, genomics and diagnostics companies. Mara was President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a billion-dollar division of The Roche Group, (now Roche Tissue Diagnostics). She 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.  

Mara 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 US while setting the industry standard for quality testing. The business was sold to LabCorp for $1 billion. Previously, she led Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and its transformation to an international leader in specialized pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing.  

Mara has a passion for education, publishing the popular Sensitive and Specific: The Testing Newsletter and the annual Health Catalysts Diagnostics Year in Review. This commitment to expanding knowledge drove her to create the Biomedical Diagnostics master’s degree program at Arizona State University, the only program dedicated exclusively to diagnostics, genetics and genomics. 

During the pandemic, Aspinall emerged as a national authority on COVID testing. She was the principal investigator at ASU on grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, creating TestingCommons.com and EvidenceCommons.com – the internationally recognized interactive databases on COVID tests.  

Most recently, Mara co-founded BlueStone Venture Partners with a strong portfolio of diagnostic, medical device and digital health companies in the US Southwest.   

She 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. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BA from Tufts University, and is certified in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon / NACD.