Elizabeth Holmes Biography

Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American businesswoman, who is the CEO and founder of Theranos, a privately-held blood test company. In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services barred her from owning or operating a diagnostic lab for two years.

Early life and education

Holmes was born in February 1984 in Washington, D.C. Her father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, worked in the United States, Africa, and China in governmental agencies such as USAID. Her mother, Noel Anne (Dauost), worked as a congressional committee staffer. She has a brother, Christian Holmes V, who is the director of product management at Theranos. Her great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Louis Fleischmann, was a founder of the Fleischmann's Yeast company.

Her parents' work in disaster relief encouraged Holmes to pursue science and service early on. When she was nine years old, Holmes wrote in a letter to her father saying, "What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn"?t know was possible to do." When Holmes was nine, her family moved to Houston and then China, where"?she later claimed"?she started a business selling [[C++ compiler]]s to Chinese universities. Growing up, her family moved frequently, which made it challenging for Holmes to make close friends. In a 2014 interview, she described herself growing up as having been a "happy loner."

As a child, she read the biography of her great-great-grandfather Christian R. Holmes, who was a surgeon, engineer, inventor, and a decorated World War I veteran. He was born in Denmark in 1857 and was the dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The career of her ancestor inspired Elizabeth to take up medicine, but she soon found that she had a fear of needles. She later described this fear as one of her motivations to launch Theranos.

After graduating from St. John's School in Houston in 2002, Holmes enrolled at Stanford University to study chemical engineering, but she left Stanford prior to completing her undergraduate degree.

Theranos

See Theranos for more information Holmes established Real-Time Cures in Palo Alto before she changed the company's name to Theranos (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis").

Theranos claimed to have developed a blood-testing device named "Edison" that uses a few drops of blood obtained via a finger-stick rather than vials of blood obtained via traditional venipuncture, using microfluidics technology. Its founders have raised over $700 million from investors, valuing the company at $9 billion, without their testing device ever being subject to peer-reviewed study. As of 2014, Holmes held 18 U.S. patents and 66 non-U.S. patents. She is also listed as a co-inventor on over 100 patent applications.

Controversy over technology and two-year ban from blood-testing industry

In October 2015, an investigative report in The Wall Street Journal stated that Theranos had probably exaggerated the reach and reliability of its technology, a claim denied by Holmes. Several clinical pathologists and other medical experts also expressed skepticism about Theranos's technology. A week later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the company's miniature blood containers were unapproved for any test other than the herpes test. Subsequently, Theranos was ordered to limit the use of its proprietary technology to only one of the 200 tests offered by the company. It was also revealed that the Arizona Department of Health Services had found major issues in a company laboratory.

After Theranos's test results came under scrutiny following the Journal's revelations, Holmes said the company had publicly verified its results against those of other providers. After no evidence could be found to support the claim, Holmes agreed on October 27, 2015 to release data showing Theranos's tests were reliable and accurate. No such data were released.

On December 2, 2015, The Washington Post revealed that an attempt to secure a partnership with the U.S. military in 2012 had led to issues being found with the Edison device and a request that the FDA investigate. Emails obtained by the Washington Post showed Holmes appealing to retired Marine General and former head of Central Command James Mattis to intervene in the investigation on the company's behalf. Mattis would join the Theranos board of directors in 2013.

Although Theranos was valued at $9 billion by some of its investors, which would have valued Holmes's stake at $4.6 billion, The Economist noted that startups of this nature can wind up being valued as a "fantasy" rather than based upon present reality. In 2016, Forbes revised the estimated net worth of the company to $800 million taking into account the $724 million of capital raised.

On January 25, 2016, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a strongly-worded letter to Theranos following an inspection of the company's Newark, California laboratory, conducted in November 2015. "[I]t was determined that the deficient practices of the laboratory pose immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety," the letter noted. CMS gave Theranos a deadline of 10 business days to prove that the laboratory was complying with hematology-related and other lab requirements. Three days later, Walgreens, which had partnered with Theranos to provide its blood testing services in stores, ceased all testing at a Palo Alto location, and ordered the company to process all of its other tests from Walgreens locations at its Arizona laboratory instead of the California lab.

On April 13, 2016, it was reported that CMS regulators were seeking to ban Holmes for two years from owning or operating a blood lab.

On June 12, 2016, Walgreens announced it would no longer offer Theranos services at any of its stores and would sever its relationship with Theranos.

In July 2016, the CMS banned Holmes from owning, operating or directing a blood testing service for a period of two years; revoked regulatory approvals for the Newark, California lab; barred the lab from receiving Medicare and Medicaid payments; and imposed an unspecified monetary penalty. Experts in the field stated that such a step was unprecedented for a clinical-laboratory company of such size and prominence. The sanctions were to take effect 60 days from the date of issuance; Theranos and Holmes could appeal the CMS's decision to an administrative law judge and then a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services appeals board, and while the appeal was pending the sanctions would not take effect. The company further stated on July 8 that "The clinical lab is just one of Theranos"? many opportunities to provide access to high-integrity, affordable and actionable health care information, and the company will continue to carry out its mission under the leadership of its founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes"?.

Personal finances

Holmes owns 50 percent of Theranos.

Holmes ranked number 110 on the Forbes 400 in 2014, and topped Forbes magazine's list of "America's Richest Self-Made Women" in 2015 with a net worth of $4.7 billion. On June 1, 2016, Forbes revised its estimate of Holmes's net worth from $4.5 billion to zero, after dropping its estimate of Theranos's worth to approximately $800 million. Because Holmes owns common shares while other Theranos investors own preferred shares, Holmes would be last in line for payment if the company were liquidated.

Awards and recognition

In 2014, Holmes was ranked in Fortune's "Businessperson of the Year" and "40 Under 40" lists.

She was named one of TIME's Most Influential People in the World in 2015. Holmes was invited by President Obama to be a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. Pepperdine University gave an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree to Holmes during her commencement address to graduates in May 2015. Holmes received the "Under 30 Doers" Award from Forbes and ranked on its 2015 list of the "Most Powerful Women". She was also named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour. Holmes was awarded the 2015 Horatio Alger Award, being the youngest recipient in its history.

Personal life

According to a 2014 profile by Ken Auletta in The New Yorker, Holmes "lives an austere life" in Palo Alto, California, where she has a two-bedroom condo. Holmes is a vegan, drinking "a pulverized concoction of cucumber, parsley, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, and celery" several times a day.