Mara Aspinall is President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems and Global Head of Roche Tissue Diagnostics. Ventana, a member of the Roche Group, is a worldwide leader in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of tissue-based cancer diagnostic equipment and products that enable the delivery of personalized healthcare to cancer patients.

Mara is also the Founder and former CEO of On-Q-ity, an innovative personalized medicine company focused on transforming cancer patient management through the capture and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a patient’s blood.

Previously, Mara was President of Genzyme Genetics, a leading provider of testing services in the oncology and reproductive markets. Under Mara's leadership, Genzyme Genetics set the industry standard for quality testing while profitably growing at an unprecedented pace to become one of the nation’s largest diagnostic laboratories. And prior to that, she served as President of Genzyme Pharmaceuticals.

An active participant in the healthcare policy community, Mara is a founding Director of the European Personalized Medicine Association (EPEMED) and a Director of the US Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC). She served for four years as an active member of the Federal Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society. Mara also lectures on life science industry issues at many institutions including Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Management and was a Board Member of Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts for three years.

Mara co-authored “Realizing the Promise of Personalized Medicine” in Harvard Business Review and has written several articles, case studies, and editorials on healthcare topics. In 2010 she was named one of the “100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences” by PharmaVOICE magazine. Mara started her business career at Bain & Company, an international strategic consulting firm. She earned her Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Tufts University.