Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes was born in Washington, D.C., in 1984. She attended Stanford University, where she studied chemical engineering before leaving during her sophomore year in 2003. That same year, she founded Theranos, a company that promised to transform blood testing by performing many analyses from a few drops of blood collected from a finger.

Holmes promoted a device called the Edison, claiming it could conduct a broad range of tests more cheaply and conveniently than conventional laboratory equipment. Theranos attracted prominent investors and directors, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist. Holmes became widely known for wearing black turtlenecks and presenting herself as a visionary entrepreneur.

The company reached a reported valuation of about $9 billion after Walgreens agreed to offer Theranos testing at stores in Arizona in 2013. However, the technology did not perform as advertised. Theranos often diluted samples or used conventional machines made by other manufacturers, while patients and business partners were not fully informed about those practices.

In October 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported, based on interviews and documents gathered by reporter John Carreyrou, that Theranos had conducted only a small portion of its tests on the Edison and had voided or corrected inaccurate results. Holmes denied the allegations and defended the company, but federal investigations followed. In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Holmes and former Theranos president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of massive fraud. Holmes settled the civil case without admitting or denying the allegations, paid a fine, and accepted restrictions on serving as an officer or director of a public company.

A federal criminal trial began in 2021. In January 2022, a jury found Holmes guilty on four counts of defrauding investors; she was acquitted on several patient-related charges, and the jury did not reach a verdict on three counts. In November 2022, a judge sentenced her to 11 years and three months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay $344.8 million in restitution jointly with Balwani to victims identified in the judgment.

Holmes reported to a federal prison camp in Texas in May 2023. Her sentence was later reduced through time credits, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons listed her release date as December 23, 2023. Its collapse prompted scrutiny of governance and oversight.