Elizabeth Holmes

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Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes 2014 (cropped).jpg
Elizabeth Holmes backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2014
Born Elizabeth Anne Holmes
(1984-02-03) February 3, 1984 (age 32)
Washington, D.C., US
Residence Palo Alto, California, US
Nationality American
Alma mater Stanford University (attended)[1]
Occupation Health technology entrepreneur Inventor
Years active 2003–present
Known for Founder of Theranos
Title Founder and CEO, Theranos
Parent(s) Christian Holmes IV
Noel Anne Daoust

Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American entrepreneur, chemical engineer and inventor.[2] She is the founder and CEO of Theranos, a privately-held blood test company based in Palo Alto, California.[3] In 2015, Forbes recognized Holmes as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world due to a $9 billion valuation of Theranos.[4] She was considered "the next Steve Jobs"[5] and named one of TIME's "100 Most Influential People" of 2015.[6] In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services banned Holmes from owning, operating or directing a diagnostic lab for a period of two years.[7]

Early life[edit]

Holmes was born in February 1984 in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of government service worker Christian Holmes IV and congressional committee staffer Noel Dauost. When she was 9 years old, Holmes and her younger brother Christian Holmes V moved to Houston, Texas due to her family's job relocation.[8] She wrote a letter to her father about the move saying, "What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible to do."[9] Holmes studied Mandarin as a child and completed three years of summer language classes at Stanford University before graduating from high school.[8]

She attended St. John's School in Houston and was recognized for her "tireless optimism and a particularly warm smile."[10] During high school, Holmes was interested in computer programming and started her first business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities.[11] In 2001, Holmes applied to Stanford University and was named a President's Scholar, which came with a stipend to use on a research project. She studied chemical engineering and used the stipend to work in a lab with Ph.D. candidates and Channing Robertson, dean at the engineering school.[8]

After the end of her freshman year, Holmes worked in a lab at the Genome Institute of Singapore on testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) through the collection of blood samples with syringes.[11] She filed her first patent on a wearable drug-delivery patch in 2003.[12][5] In March 2004, she left Stanford's School of Engineering and used her tuition money as seed funding for a consumer healthcare technology company.[8][13]

Career[edit]

Holmes originally founded the company in Palo Alto, California as Real-Time Cures to "democratize healthcare."[11][14] Her goal was to make health information accessible to all people at any time so that risk of disease and health conditions could be detected early on.[11][15][16] In April 2004, she incorporated the company as Theranos (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis")[17] and rented the basement of a group college house.[8] At that time, Holmes hired her first employee and rented lab space.[2] Robertson became the company's first board member and introduced Holmes to venture capitalists.[8]

By December 2004, she had raised $6 million to fund Theranos.[8] The company's first revenue came from contracts Holmes established with pharmaceutical companies to conduct testing and other clinical trials.[2] By the end of 2010, Holmes had more than $92 million in venture capital for Theranos.[12] In July 2011, Holmes was introduced to former Secretary of State George Shultz. After a two hour meeting, he joined the Theranos board of directors.[18] She was recognized for forming "the most illustrious board in U.S. corporate history" over the next three years.[19] Holmes operated Theranos in stealth mode without press releases or a company website until September 2013 when the company announced a partnership with Walgreens to make in-store blood sample collection centers.[20][21]

Media attention increased in 2014 as she was on the cover of Fortune, Forbes, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and Inc., who considered her "The Next Steve Jobs".[22] Forbes recognized Holmes as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire and ranked her #110 on the Forbes 400 in 2014. Theranos was valued at $9 billion with more than $400 million in venture capital.[8][23] By the end of 2014, she had 18 U.S. patents and 66 non-U.S. patents in her name.[5]

During 2015, Holmes established agreements with Cleveland Clinic, Capital BlueCross and AmeriHealth Caritas to use Theranos technology.[12] The Wall Street Journal stated that the Edison blood-testing device by Theranos might provide inaccurate results in October 2015.[24] Holmes denied the claims and said the company would publish data on the accuracy of its tests.[25][26]

In January 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a warning letter to Theranos after inspecting its Newark, California laboratory.[27] CMS regulators proposed a two year ban on Holmes from owning or operating a blood lab after the company had not fixed problems within its California lab in March 2016.[28] On The Today Show, Holmes said that she was "devastated we did not catch and fix these issues faster" and that the lab would be rebuilt with help from a new scientific and medical advisory board.[29] In July 2016, the CMS banned Holmes from owning, operating or directing a blood testing service for a period of two years. The company planned to 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.[30]

Philanthropy[edit]

Holmes partnered with Carlos Slim Helú in June 2015 to improve blood testing in Mexico.[31] In October 2015, she announced #IronSisters to help women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.[32] Holmes has advocated for a healthcare system based on preventative medicine and for full transparency in lab pricing to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs. She helped to draft and pass a law in Arizona to let people obtain and pay for lab tests without requiring insurance or healthcare provider approval.[33]

Awards and recognition[edit]

In 2014, Holmes was ranked in Fortune's "Businessperson of the Year" and "40 Under 40" lists.[34][35] She was named one of TIME's Most Influential People in the World in 2015.[6] Holmes received the "Under 30 Doers" Award from Forbes and ranked on its 2015 list of the "Most Powerful Women".[36][37] She was also named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour.[38] Holmes was awarded the 2015 Horatio Alger Award, being the youngest recipient in its history.[39][40] Following the scrutiny over the Theranos lab controversy, Fortune named Holmes one of the "World's Most Disappointing Leaders" for 2016.[41]

Personal life[edit]

Her father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, worked in the United States, Africa, and China as part of government agencies such as USAID.[1] Her mother, Noel Anne Dauost, worked as a Congressional committee staffer.[8] Holmes describes her fear of needles as one of her motivations for founding Theranos.[15] She is known for wearing black turtlenecks, which was inspired by Sharon Stone's attire at the 1996 Academy Awards.[42]

Holmes has 50 percent ownership of stock in Theranos.[11] Forbes listed her as one of "America's Richest Self-Made Women" in 2015 with a net worth of $4.5 billion.[23] In June 2016, Forbes released an updated value of Theranos, which estimated its worth as $800 million with Holmes having a net worth of zero in the company.[43]

She is a descendent of Charles Louis Fleischmann, the founder of the Fleischmann's Yeast company.[11] Holmes is also a descendent of Christian R. Holmes, a surgeon, engineer, inventor, and a decorated World War I veteran.[44]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Crane, Rachel (October 16, 2014). "She's America's youngest female billionaire – and a dropout". CNNMoney (New York). Retrieved March 22, 2015. 
  2. ^ a b c Rago, Joseph (2013-09-08). "Elizabeth Holmes: The Breakthrough of Instant Diagnosis". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2013-09-16. 
  3. ^ Abelson, Reed (24 April 2016). "Theranos's Fate Rests With a Founder Who Answers Only to Herself". New York Times. Retrieved 30 April 2016. 
  4. ^ "America's Richest Self-Made Women". Forbes. Retrieved November 5, 2016. 
  5. ^ a b c Larry Kim (July 1, 2015). "21 Surprising Facts About Billionaire Entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes". Inc. Retrieved October 17, 2016. 
  6. ^ a b Kissinger, Henry A. (16 April 2015). "The 100 Most Influential People: Elizabeth Holmes". TIME. Retrieved 11 June 2016. 
  7. ^ Carlos Tejada, Theranos Founder, Elizabeth Holmes, Is Barred From Running Lab for 2 Years, New York Times (July 8, 2016).
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ken Auletta (December 15, 2014). "One Woman's Drive to Revolutionize Medical Testing – The New Yorker". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-10-19. 
  9. ^ "Quinn: Meet Elizabeth Holmes, Silicon Valley's latest phenom". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2015-12-09. 
  10. ^ Abelson, Reed; Creswe, Julie (19 December 2015). "Theranos Founder Faces a Test of Technology, and Reputation". New York Times. Retrieved 1 November 2016. 
  11. ^ a b c d e f Parloff, Roger (June 12, 2014). "This CEO is out for blood". Fortune. 
  12. ^ a b c "How Elizabeth Holmes' Billion-Dollar Drug Company, Theranos, Won by Playing the Long Game – Inc.com". Inc.com. Retrieved April 8, 2016. 
  13. ^ Crane, Rachel. "She's America's youngest female billionaire – and a dropout". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2015-12-09. 
  14. ^ Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen (October 12, 2015). "Five Visionary Tech Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the World: Elizabeth Holmes". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2016. 
  15. ^ a b Roper, Caitlin (February 18, 2014). "This Woman Invented a Way to Run 30 Lab Tests on Only One Drop of Blood". Wired. 
  16. ^ Sheelah Kolhatkar; Caroline Chen (December 10, 2015). "Can Elizabeth Holmes Save Her Unicorn?". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved October 20, 2016. 
  17. ^ "Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes: Young entrepreneurs need "a mission"". MSN. Retrieved June 15, 2015. 
  18. ^ Roger Parloff (June 12, 2014). "A singular board at Theranos". Fortune. Retrieved October 18, 2016. 
  19. ^ Ron Leuty (August 2, 2013). "Theranos adds Kovacevich to all-star board". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved October 18, 2016. 
  20. ^ "Holmes is where the heart is". The Economist. June 27, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2016. 
  21. ^ Ron Leuty (September 9, 2013). "Secretive Theranos emerging (partly) from shadows". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved October 17, 2016. 
  22. ^ Noah Kulwin (October 26, 2015). "Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes's Five Best Cover Story Appearances, Ranked". Re/code. Retrieved October 17, 2016. 
  23. ^ a b "Elizabeth Holmes". Forbes. Retrieved December 9, 2015. 
  24. ^ Carreyrou, John (2015-10-16). "Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled With Its Blood-Test Technology". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-05-04. 
  25. ^ "The Narrative Frays for Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes". The New York Times. October 30, 2015. 
  26. ^ "Theranos Chief Yields to Calls for Proof of Blood Test's Reliability". The New York Times. October 27, 2015. 
  27. ^ "Here's what Theranos customers need to know". Verge. February 2, 2016. 
  28. ^ Abelson, Reed (13 April 2016). "Theranos Under Fire as U.S. Threatens Crippling Sanctions". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2016. 
  29. ^ "Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes: I'm 'devastated' about blood test issues". The Today Show. April 18, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2016. 
  30. ^ Michael Siconolfi, John Carreyrou & Christopher Weaver, U.S. Regulator Bans Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes From Operating Labs for Two Years, Wall Street Journal (July 8, 2016).
  31. ^ Estevez, Dolia (22 June 2015). "With Carlos Slim, Billionaire Elizabeth Holmes Brings Innovative Blood Testing Method To Mexico". Forbes. Retrieved 24 October 2016. 
  32. ^ Lev-Ram, Michal (12 October 2015). "Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes calls on women to help each other". Fortune. Retrieved 24 October 2016. 
  33. ^ della Cava, Marco (2 July 2015). "Now no doctor's note needed for blood test in Arizona". USA Today. Retrieved 24 October 2016. 
  34. ^ "14. Elizabeth Holmes". Fortune. 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2016. 
  35. ^ "9. Elizabeth Holmes". Fortune. 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2016. 
  36. ^ Hedgecock, Sarah. "Elizabeth Holmes On Using Business To Change The World". Forbes. 
  37. ^ "The World's Most Powerful Women 2015: 19 Newcomers". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016. 
  38. ^ "Elizabeth Holmes Wants You to Have Control of Your Health Info". Glamour Magazine. Retrieved 31 May 2016. 
  39. ^ Parloff, Roger. "Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes: Young entrepreneurs need "a mission"". Fortune. Retrieved 31 May 2016. 
  40. ^ "2015 Horatio Alger Award Winner Elizabeth Holmes". Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. Retrieved May 31, 2016. 
  41. ^ "The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders". Fortune. 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016. 
  42. ^ Weisul, Kimberley (October 2015). "How Playing the Long Game Made Elizabeth Holmes a Billionaire". Inc. Retrieved 1 November 2016. 
  43. ^ Herper, Matthew. "From $4.5 Billion To Nothing: Forbes Revises Estimated Net Worth of Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes". Forbes. Retrieved June 1, 2016. 
  44. ^ Christian Rasmus Holmes. Journal of the American Medical Association. American Medical Association. 1920. 

External links[edit]

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