Industry veteran named CEO of Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association

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The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) – a Fairfield-based not-for-profit that works to further the advancement of women in the health care industry – has named a new leader.  

Mary Stutts, who had served on HBA’s global board of directors, will be the first woman of color to lead the organization, HBA said in a March 28 announcement. Stutts takes the helm April 10, an HBA representative told NJBIZ.

The HBA’s previous CEO, Laurie Cooke, retired in 2021, and an interim leader has lead the organization for the past year, the representative added.

Bringing 30 years of leadership experience to her new role, Stutts most recently served as chief global health equity and inclusion officer for Real Chemistry. She also held leadership positions with companies such as Stanford Health Care, Sumitovant Biopharma Inc., Comcast, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Elan, Genentech, Bayer HealthCare and Kaiser Permanente, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

“With her extensive background championing innovation and equity in the workplace, and her 15 years supporting the work of the HBA, including serving on the global Board of Directors, Mary truly embodies HBA’s mission as well as our 2023 theme Powering the Possibilities,” HBA Board Chair Julie Ross said in the hiring announcement. 

Stutts said the move was “a natural transition” from serving on the HBA board. She said her focus will be “to further accelerate my global commitment to Corporate Partners achieving gender parity by helping women advance into leadership roles, engaging male allies, and building upon and formalizing what I already do via coaching and mentoring women into C-suite and corporate board roles.” 

Jim Weiss, HBA advisory board member and founder and chairman of Real Chemistry, said Stutts “was one of the first to focus on clinical trial diversity more than 15 years ago – with a vision that has now come of age.” 

Stutts tackled this initiative as head of corporate relations at Genentech, where she spearheaded the company’s $5 million Diversity in Clinical Trials program to identify root causes of the lack of representation of people of color and women in clinical trials, according to HBA 

An accomplished author, Stutts earned a master’s in health administration from the University of Southern California and is a graduate of the Executive Program on Strategy and Organization at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. 

ICYMI

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