Elizabeth Anne Holmes was born February 3, 1984, is an American former biotechnology entrepreneur and convicted fraudster. She is the founder and former CEO of Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company. It soared in valuation after the company claimed to have revolutionized blood testing by developing methods that could use surprisingly small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick. By 2015, Forbes had named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the United States on the basis of a $9-billion valuation of her company.
Elizabeth Holmes Personal Life
Family
Elizabeth Holmes was born on February 3, 1984, in Washington, D.C. His father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, was vice president of the energy company Enron, which later went bankrupt after an accounting fraud scandal. His mother Noel Anne (née Daoust) worked as a congressional committee worker. Christian later held leadership positions in government agencies such as USAID, EPA, and USTDA. Christian is part Danish. One of his paternal grandfathers was Charles Louis Fleischmann, a Hungarian immigrant who founded Fleischmann’s Yeast.
The Holmes family “was very proud of its yeast empire” history, according to a family friend, Joseph Fuisz, “I think the parents very much yearned for the days of yore when the family was one of the richest in America. And I think Elizabeth channeled that, and at a young age.
Education
Holmes graduated from high school in Houston at St. John’s school. During high school, he became interested in computer programming and says he started his first business selling C compilers to universities in China. His parents arranged for him to be taught Mandarin Chinese at home, and during high school, Holmes began attending Stanford University’s summer Mandarin program. In 2002, Holmes attended Stanford, where he studied chemical engineering and worked as a researcher and laboratory assistant in the engineering school.
Elizabeth Holmes Career
In 2003, Holmes founded Real-Time Cures in Palo Alto, California to “democratize health care.” Holmes described his fear of needles as his motivation and tried to perform blood tests using only a small amount of blood.
By December 2004, Holmes had raised $6 million to fund the firm. By the end of 2010, Theranos had more than $92 million in venture capital. 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.
In March 2018, the SEC charged Holmes and former Theranos chairman Ramesh Balwan with fraud for defrauding investors of more than $700 million while promoting a fake product. On March 14, 2018, Holmes settled the SEC lawsuit. The fraud allegations included the company’s false claim that the US Department of Defense used its technology in combat situations.
On June 15, 2018, following an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California in San Francisco that lasted more than two years, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and former Theranos chief operating officer and president, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Both pleaded not guilty.
On November 18, 2022, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to 11 1⁄4 years (135 months) in prison and ordered him to surrender by April 27, 2023. The sentence included a $400 fine, or $100 for each conviction. For fraud and three years of supervised release following a prison sentence. With good behavior, he could get about 15 percent out of prison, making his sentence 9 1⁄2 years without the possibility of parole.
After her conviction, Holmes and her partner allegedly attempted to flee, according to prosecutors, when they bought one-way plane tickets to Mexico. Holmes’s legal team said they bought the tickets with the hope the outcome of the case would have been different, and that she canceled her ticket after losing the case; her partner went on to Mexico without her.
Elizabeth Holmes Net Worth
In court filings, Balwani has “categorically” denied abuse allegations, calling them “false and inflammatory.” Before the March 2018 settlement, Holmes owned half of Theranos’s stock. Forbes listed her as one of America’s Richest Self-Made Women in 2015 with a net worth of $4.5 billion.
Elizabeth Holmes Affairs
Holmes was romantically involved with technology entrepreneur Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, a Pakistani-born Hindu who immigrated to India and then the US. She met him in 2002 during a trip to Beijing as part of Stanford University’s Mandarin program. Holmes was 18 at the time and had just graduated from high school; Balwani is 19 years older than she is and was married to another woman at the time.
On November 29, 2021, Holmes admitted that she was raped while studying at Stanford and that she sought comfort from Balwan after the incident. She also said that Balwani was very controlling and at times verbally abused and sexually abused her during their romantic relationship of more than a decade.
Elizabeth Holmes Husband
Elizabeth Holmes’ husband is Billy Evans. The couple met while they were both attending Stanford University, where Evans was studying chemical engineering. They married in 2019, after Holmes’ indictment on fraud charges. Evans is not directly involved in the Theranos scandal and has largely stayed out of the public eye. He is said to be supportive of his wife during her trial and has attended court proceedings with her. While not much is known about Evans, he is believed to be a private individual who prefers to keep a low profile.
Latest News About Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes to begin 11-year prison sentence at end of month
Elizabeth Holmes must begin her more than 11-year prison sentence on 27 April after a federal judge denied the disgraced Theranos founder’s request to remain free while she appeals her conviction.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila wrote in his ruling that Holmes, who was convicted in January 2022 of four counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the murder, “is not likely to flee and does not pose a danger” to the public. But the San Jose-based judge said his appeal was unlikely to result in a reversal of the conviction or a new trial — a requirement that the defendant remain free after sentencing.
Prosecutors had attempted to argue that Holmes did pose a flight risk, revealing that her partner had bought her a one-way flight to Mexico shortly before the verdict was returned. While Davila called the travel plans a “bold move” and Holmes’s failure to cancel the ticket post-conviction a “perilously careless oversight”, he accepted her assertion that she was not trying to flee the country.
Attorneys defending Holmes have raised a number of evidentiary and procedural issues with the trial in their appeal to the federal ninth circuit court of appeals. But Davila wrote that even if the appeals court agrees with Holmes that the lower court had made errors, the issues were not “substantial” enough to merit a reversal or new trial.
Holmes’s incarceration will mark an extraordinary fall from grace for the one-time Silicon Valley magnate.
Know Some Interesting Facts About Elizabeth Holmes
- Holmes dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19 to found Theranos.
- She was inspired to start Theranos after her fear of needles made her want to develop a way to test for diseases without the need for large needles.
- Holmes wore the same black turtleneck and black pants every day, a fashion choice inspired by Steve Jobs.
- She was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2015.
- Holmes was briefly engaged to hotel heir Billy Dunne, but the couple broke up in 2016.
- She was a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows from 2013 to 2018.
- In 2019, Holmes gave birth to a son, who she named William after her husband Billy Evans.
- She was a fan of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and had a quote from his book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” engraved on the back of her Theranos business cards.
- Holmes is facing up to 20 years in prison after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges in 2021.
- Her story has been the subject of multiple books, a podcast, and a documentary on HBO called “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.”
Bio/Wiki
| Name | Elizabeth Anne Holmes |
|---|---|
| Birthdate | February 3, 1984, Washington, D.C. |
| Age | 39 years (As of 2023) |
| Education | Stanford University, Chemical Engineering (dropped out) |
| Career | Founder and former CEO of Theranos (2003-2018) |
| Famous for | Claiming to have revolutionized blood testing with Theranos technology |
| Controversies | Convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges in 2021, facing up to 20 years |
Notable Achievements and Awards:
- Named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2015
- Honored with the 2015 Horatio Alger Award, given to individuals who overcome adversity to achieve success
- Received the 2015 Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows’ Award for Excellence in Clinical Research
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