Mara G. Aspinall

Mara Aspinall is a healthcare industry leader and pioneer with a commitment to civic involvement.

Aspinall is the President and CEO of Health Catalysts, an investment and advisory firm dedicated to the growth of new healthcare companies. Aspinall is also Executive Chairman of GenePeeks, a computational genomics company leading a paradigm shift in genetic testing and personalized medicine. GenePeeks’ proprietary technology can identify the risk, pre-conception, of passing on more than 1100 monogenic diseases to progeny through data mining the maternal and paternal genomes.

Aspinall is a member of the Board of Directors of Abcam plc (AIM:ABC), 3Scan, Castle Biosciences, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, OraSure Technologies as well as Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona.

Aspinall is the former President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a division of the Roche Group, worldwide leader in development and commercialization of tissue-based cancer diagnostics. At Ventana, with her world class team, she led the company to new financial success, more than two dozen major instrument and assay launches and global leadership in companion diagnostics.

Previously, Aspinall spent 12 years with Genzyme as President of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics was sold to LabCorp for $1 billion in 2010. Aspinall was also Founder and CEO of On-Q-ity, a start-up diagnostic company dedicated to circulating tumor cells.

Aspinall has spearheaded initiatives to educate payers and policymakers on genomics and personalized medicine. She served as an active member of the Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Council on Genetics, Health & Society (SACGHS) in both the Obama and Bush administrations. Aspinall was also a Trustee of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for 11 years, where she chaired the Trustee Science Committee.

With a passion for education about the importance of diagnostics, Aspinall co-founded the International School of Biomedical Diagnostics at Arizona State University and Dublin City University, the first school ever dedicated entirely to Diagnostics as an independent discipline. The School awarded their first Master degrees in 2015 and will graduate 70 Master’s students this year.

Within Arizona, Aspinall is the Chair of the Arizona Biosciences Board, a CEO group focused on increasing opportunities in the state for technology companies. She is also a Board member of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and Sun Corridor.

Aspinall is a frequent national speaker and author on healthcare related issues. She was named Arizona Biosciences Leader of the Year in 2016 by the Arizona Biotechnology Association and one of “100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences” by PharmaVOICE magazine.

Mara started her business career at the strategic consulting firm Bain & Company. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.