Mara Aspinall
Mara G. Aspinall is a healthcare industry leader and pioneer committed to active civic involvement. She is Managing Director and Co-Founder of BlueStone Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in life sciences technology companies in the US Southwest. She is also CEO of the Health Catalysts Group, a consulting firm dedicated to the growth of health information technology and diagnostics firms, publishing the popular Health Catalysts Diagnostics Year in Review. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Abcam plc (ABC), Allscripts (MDRX), Castle Biosciences (CSTL), Orasure (OSUR), and Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona.
Most recently, Aspinall was certified in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon University.
Prior to founding BlueStone, Aspinall had extensive experience in the risk-based capital industry. She has served as advisor on life sciences transactions for large venture capital and private equity firms. At BCBS Arizona, Aspinall chaired the Board of their strategic corporate venture fund, Trinnovate Ventures.
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, she served as President of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics grew into the country’s leading diagnostic testing company and was sold to LabCorp for $1 billion.
A leader in educating payers and policymakers on personalized medicine, 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 in healthcare, Aspinall co-founded the School of Biomedical Diagnostics 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 has 120 students matriculating this year.
Aspinall was named Arizona Biosciences Leader of the Year by the Arizona Biotechnology Association and one of “100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences” by PharmaVOICE magazine and one of Women Inc’s Most Influential Corporate Board Directors. She started her business career at the strategic consulting firm Bain & Company. Aspinall holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Tufts University.