Who Is Elizabeth Holmes? Theranos Ex-CEO To Be Convicted For Fraud

Elizabeth Holmes is the ex-CEO of Theranos, a now-defunct health technology company that she started in 2003. The entrepreneur claimed to have developed a test kit that would be able to carry out multiple medical diagnosis with a small amount of blood.

Elizabeth Holmes' Fraud Case

US Biotech Elizabeth Holmes will face sentencing for fraud case of falsely claiming the existence of a smart blood test kit. For 15 years, she persuaded investors through this false innovation and raised billions of funds. Her investors include Walton family of Walmart, Rupert Murdoch and Walgreens chain of pharmacies who now seek restitution worth of $800 million. Holmes' lawyers have raised request for leniency as she has a young child to take care of and a second child on the way. Here's all you need to know about the fallen American entrepreneur.

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Who Is Elizabeth Holmes?

Born in 1984 in Washington DC, Elizabeth Holmes' father Christian Rasmus Holmes IV and her mother was Noel Anne.

She belonged to the family of Hungarian immigrant Charles Louis Fleischmann who founded Fleischmann's Yeast company. She went to Houston's St. John's School and was a computer programming enthusiast in high school.

She started selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities which was her first ever business. She went to Stanford in 2002 to pursue chemical engineering.

She worked at the Genome Institute in Singapore during the end of her freshman year and collected samples for testing of SARS-CoV-1 and in 2003, she filed first patent application for a wearable drug-delivery patch.

In 2004, she dropped out of Stanford to start Theranos and used her tuition fees as seeding fund for the company. In 2015, Theranos had a valuation of $9 billion due to which Forbes named Holmes as the youngest and wealthiest self made female American billionaire.

Forbes took the title away when Holmes was accused of wire fraud in 2015 and reduced her net worth to zero. She was included in the list of The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders by Fortune.

Holmes' life story and the rise and fall of Theranos has been the subject for the documentary film titled  The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley by HBO and miniseries The Dropout on Hulu.