Ariadne Labs Names Ambassador Román Macaya to Advisory Board

BOSTON, MA – October 24, 2022 — Ariadne Labs today announced Ambassador Román Macaya, PhD, MBA, as a new member of its Advisory Board. Formerly Costa Rica’s Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Macaya will serve as a trusted advisor to Ariadne Labs’ mission to save lives and reduce suffering.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ambassador Macaya to the Advisory Board. He brings a wealth of experience as a scientist, businessman, diplomat, advocate, and public servant, including administering effective health care and social services for the people of Costa Rica. He will offer critical insight to our work to deliver safer, more integrated, and more equitable care for every patient, everywhere,” said Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Executive Director of Ariadne Labs. 

Ambassador Macaya is a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Until May 2022 he served as the Executive President and Chairman of the Board of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, Costa Rica’s Social Security system. In that role, he was responsible for the provision of all public health care and the management of the largest pension system in Costa Rica. He was additionally responsible for the health care response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Costa Rica. 

As Costa Rica’s Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Macaya worked to promote science diplomacy and educational ties between both nations, strengthening cooperation in security, and supporting the attraction of foreign direct investment. 

Ambassador Román Macaya

He has additionally led R&D teams in biomedical research and has held leadership roles in the fields of clinical research, private equity, health care consulting, and agribusiness. He holds an MBA in Health Care Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD in Biochemistry from UCLA, and a BA in Chemistry from Middlebury College.

Ambassador Macaya joins the following current members of Ariadne Labs’ Advisory Board:

Robert S. D. Higgins (co-chair)
Michelle Williams (co-chair)
Paul J. Anderson
Don Berwick
Kate Calvin
Elliot Cohen
Andrew Dreyfus
Peter Hecht
Karin S. Leschly
John Maraganore 
Jason Yeung
Gwill York

About Ariadne Labs 

Ariadne Labs is a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With a mission to save lives and reduce suffering, our vision is that health systems equitably deliver the best possible care for every patient, everywhere, every time. We use human centered design, health systems implementation science, public health expertise, and frontline clinical care experience to design, test, and spread scalable systems-level solutions to some of health care’s biggest problems. From developing checklists and conversation guides to fostering international collaborations and establishing global standards of measurement, our work has been accessed in more than 165 countries, touching hundreds of millions of lives.

Media Contact: Brigid Tsai, btsai@ariadnelabs.org