Karen Ponchner

Senior Vice President, Head of Operations

As Senior Vice President, Head of Operations at GeneDx, Karen Ponchner sets the strategy for and leads the team that delivers the highest quality tests with competitive turnaround times and cost efficiency.

Karen has more than two decades of experience in operations in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to non-profit research institutions to innovative start-ups. She has spent the last 15 years in the genetics industry, driven by a strong belief that genetic testing provides crucial diagnostic information that can improve quality of life.

Prior to GeneDx, Karen held several operational leadership roles at Invitae Corporation, leading process design, customer experience, and product management. Before that, she played a key role in at the Broad Institute’s sequencing platform operations and financial planning and analysis.

Karen was a Fellow of the Leaders for Manufacturing at MIT, where she earned an MBA and a MSc in Chemical Engineering. She also holds a license in Chemical Engineering from the University of Costa Rica.