Who is Elizabeth Holmes? The Founder Behind Blood Testing Startup Theranos

CEO and founder of blood testing company Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes has risen and fallen from fame after being charged with massive fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018.

The Silicon Valley startup had promise as it looked to transform the blood analysis process, raising more than $700 million from investors. The SEC argued that Holmes deceived investors as she made it seem as if the company had developed a way to perform lab tests using only a small sampling of blood.

It was later revealed by the SEC that Theranos used commercial blood analyzers from other manufacturers to test a patient’s blood or sent it out to other labs. The fallout was significant for Holmes that once was the starlet of the industry, appearing on magazine covers and presenting before crowds.

The ramifications for the allegations against required a $500,000 penalty. She would not be able to serve as a director of any public company for 10 years. And she must also return the 18.9 million shares that were gathered during the alleged fraud.

Here’s everything we know about Holmes and her company Theranos.

Holmes started Theranos in 2003 at the age of 19.
She dropped out of Stanford University to begin the startup.
Holmes has not admitted or denied the charges against her by the SEC, USA Today reported. She pleaded not guilty and was convicted of fraud in June 2018.
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former president of Theranos, was also charged by the SEC. He left the company in 2016. He also pleaded not guilty in the case.
Holmes dated Balwani for a period of time, The New York Times reported.
Holmes and Balwani were both charged with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
She was claimed to be “The Next Steve Jobs” by Inc. She was also on the cover of Fortune and Forbes.
At the height of Theranos, Holmes was named the youngest, self-made, female billionaire with the company valued at nearly $10 billion, CBS News reported.
Forbes valued her net worth at $4.5 billion.
Former Theranos employee, Tyler Schultz, tipped off the authorities to Holmes and the wrongdoings of the company.
The Wall Street Journal also investigated Holmes and the claim she made and is credited with bringing Theranos and Holmes down.
At one time, the board of directors at Theranos included; Henry Kissinger, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and former Secretary of State George P. Shultz.
Theranos investors included Walmart’s Walton family, Rupert Murdoch and the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.
Holmes often wears a uniform of a black turtleneck, black pants, and a French manicure as part of her persona, Yahoo News reported.
Holmes’s husky voice has been questioned on occasion and may not be her real voice, according to USA Today.
She was always surrounded by bodyguards and used her lawyer David Boies to intimate her staff, USA Today reported.
HBO has developed a documentary about Holmes which will air on Monday called “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.”