Elizabeth Holmes: Female Icon to accused fraudster to alleged victim of intimate partner abuse
Edit: On the 4th January 2022 Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of fraud.
If the future is female, let’s hope it doesn’t look like Elizabeth Holmes. The one-time female icon, billionaire, and ladyboss is now a new mother on trial looking at up to 20 years in prison after being accused of corporate fraud. Perhaps this is a story made possible – even inevitable - in a world where equality schemes are eager to promote women’s careers in the sciences, and where since #MeToo we are told we should unquestioningly ‘believe women’.
Holmes’s blood-testing company ‘Theranos’, was set to change the world for the better, with her new technology allowing rapid diagnosis of a range of medical conditions from only a tiny amount of blood. But that dream was now over, with the company hit with allegations that patients and investors were conned because not only did Theranos’ products fail to work as advertised, but endangered patients’ lives.
Holmes’ trial is underway and court documents show that Holmes - who denies all charges against her - is accusing Sunny Balwani, her Chief Operating Officer at Theranos and secret boyfriend, of emotional and sexual abuse. Her defence will argue that he was "dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions". Balwani denies the allegations, calling them “salacious and inflammatory”. Investigative journalist John Carreyrou, who originally exposed the Theranos scandal, says: “Balwani was a bad influence. But to place all the blame on his shoulders is not only too convenient, it’s inaccurate. Employees who saw the two interact up close describe a partnership in which Holmes, even if she was almost twenty years younger, had the last say”.
Stories of corporate fraud are not new, but for those of us fascinated with male and female psychology, this story has lots to offer. The disgraced foundress was once seen as a female unicorn in a man’s world, a woman who was uniquely confident, in charge and happy to bask in all the praise she received when Theranos was receiving glowing media coverage.
Although she was recognisable for her deep voice and a dress sense derived from Steve Jobs, now that she was appearing in court and facing a lengthy prison sentence, she has gone through something of a transformation, looking softer, more feminine and vulnerable.
Theranos – A disruption to the established way of doing things
Holmes created what became known as Theranos (a mixing of ‘therapy’ and ‘diagnosis’) in 2003 when she was just 19. Full of belief in herself and her vision, she dropped out of Stanford’s School of Engineering at age 20 to dedicate herself to her healthcare technology start-up. Spurred by her fear of needles and the desire to build “a world in which nobody has to say goodbye too soon,”, Holmes had plans to revolutionise blood testing.
The company slogan “one tiny drop changes everything” was at the heart of the vision: through incredibly innovative technological design, a small, automated device would run complex analyses on only a fingerpick of blood. The idea was to transform healthcare as we know it, making it easier, cheaper, quicker, more convenient, and accessible for patients to order and receive their own blood-work, and track their medical history.
Her sales pitch saw Theranos raise more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, which at its peak saw the company valued at $9 billion. Investors included mostly well know wealthy and much older men such as medial mogul Rupert Murdoch, ex U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and foreign policy advisor to Ronald Regan, George Shultz.
Theranos – Dangerous and Defunct
A decade after its creation, things seemed to be going well for Holmes and Theranos. Holmes was becoming something of a celebrity, regularly enjoying glowing media coverage. From the very start however, there had been rumblings in the medical community regarding the plausibility of Holmes’ idea. When Theranos partnered with supermarket chain Walgreens, opening Theranos Wellness Centers there, many sceptics including, ex board member Avie Tevanian, felt dumbfouned that they had somehow underestimated the potential of Theranos. It turned out of course, they had not. Deliberate use of regulatory loopholes by Thernanos accompanied with oversights and poor diligence by Walgreens - who did not want to miss the chance to be at the forefront of something brilliant - paved the way for a disastrous situation to emerge that gambled with people’s health.
Through their wellness centres, Theranos was now offering their blood testing services to real-life customers. It’s reported that around 176,000 customers bought over 1.5 million blood tests that resulted in 7.8 million test results. Frighteningly, of those test results, slightly more than 10 percent were voided or corrected by Theranos and some patients claimed in lawsuits that they were harmed by inaccurate test results. Theranos was misdiagnosing patients, providing them with false positives and false negatives, resulting in instances of patients being told they were HIV positive when they were not, experiencing a miscarriage when they were not, and serious conditions like an ectopic pregnancy were being missed.
The military had a near miss with Theranos after Holmes very nearly managed to get her devices deployed to Afghanistan with the sales pitch that they could help diagnose and treat wounded soldiers faster; luckily, she did not manage to overcome regulatory issues this time. Another near miss was the Ebola outbreak in 2014, and it is perfectly reasonable to suggest Theranos would be involved in testing for covid in the current pandemic if she were not already on trial.
It wasn’t just patients that suffered. A toxic work environment has been implicated in the suicide of chief scientist Ian Gibbons after his mental health deteriorated because of how he was treated at Theranos. A culture of paranoia, secrecy, excessive micromanaging, and eliminating those from the company who raised doubts, resulted in some employees equating working at Theranos to being under a south American dictatorship or drug cartel. Holmes hired the notoriously intimidating lawyer David Boise, and staff were often fearful of retribution if they said anything.
The downfall of Theranos started in 2015 after a series of whistle-blowers and Johns Carreyrou’s explosive article emerged. Allegations included claims of the company exaggerating its abilities, reports of Theranos equipment producing wildly inaccurate results, and concerns over the lack of peer-reviewed research on the Theranos technology. On March 14, 2018, Theranos, Holmes and Sunny were charged with fraud and Theranos was shut down later that year.
Elizabeth Holmes – From “the next Steve Jobs” to one of the "World's Most Disappointing Leaders"
Since early childhood, Holmes had been fantasising about changing the world. From a privileged background with impressive connections, this young girl rejected TV for books and told her father that she wanted to be rich.
Holmes was obsessed with Steve Jobs, and revered by her fans as the next Steve Jobs. She was the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire and received accolades such as being one of TIME magazine's Most Influential People in the World, and deemed one of the world’s most powerful women. So how then did she then end up crowned as one of the world’s most disappointing leaders?
Critics believe that part of her downfall is that she modelled herself on the wrong industry – she wanted to be a celebrity entrepreneur, so placed herself in the Silicon Valley model, when she would have been better positioned within the medical community. Rather than substantiating her board and management with experts in biotechnology, she chose to surround herself with those who believed in her and her vision even though they had no appropriate expert knowledge or training.
The story of Holmes and Theranos has inspired many podcasters and YouTubers to analyse her psychology. Is she a sociopath? A narcissistic? Carryrou doesn’t think that Holmes set out to con – this wasn’t a ponzi scheme. Instead, he suggests that she was a genuine entrepreneur who was passionate about her cause, but the ‘fake it till you make it’ mentally she employed caught up with her when she failed to behave responsibly by facing up to reality. He describes what happened as “noble cause corruption” because Holmes believed that her lying was for the greater good.
What’s next?
Holmes is now married to a hotel heir and has a baby. The trial, delayed by covid and Holmes’ pregnancy, is now underway. Sunny Balwani’s trial will take place separately next year. Carryrou states that Holmes “is someone who has an incredibly high tolerance for risk” suggesting this is why she pleaded not guilty rather than accept a plea deal.
Where you can find out more
The story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos has captured intense media interest over the years resulting in a host of documentaries, articles, and podcasters. There is even a movie in production. Find below my recommendations for some more in-depth explorations of the story of Holmes and Theranos.
In my next article on this issue, I will look at the role that sex and gender may have had in Holmes’ rise and fall.
Documentary: The Inventor: Out for blood in Silicon Valley
Book: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Youtube: John Carreyrou discusses his book ‘Bad Blood’
Podcast: Bad Blood: The Final Chapter
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Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, legal advice, or other professional opinion. Never disregard such advice because of this article or anything else you have read from the Centre for Male Psychology. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of, or are endorsed by, The Centre for Male Psychology, and we cannot be held responsible for these views. Read our full disclaimer here.
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