IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 11

with adverse facts about Theranos
decided to confront Holmes, only
to have the facts melt away in her
physical presence. The men would
go away convinced that she was
right after all, and that anybody who
said otherwise was just being mean
or vindictive. And the older the man,
the better it seemed to work. For a
brief period, the most prominent
board members of Theranos were
former U.S. Secretaries of State (and
nonagenarians) Henry Kissinger and
George Shultz.
While Theranos never got as big
as the energy-trading company
Enron, which grew to over $100 billion in revenues at the peak of the
dot-com boom in 2000 before collapsing among revelations of massive accounting fraud, the story of
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos is
similar. Perhaps not coincidentally,
Holmes's father worked briefly for
Enron shortly before its collapse,
which leads one to speculate about
the dynastic nature of the modern
economy. It's one thing to inherit a
lot of dough, but it's something else
to carry on a tradition of skating on
thin ethical ice from one generation
to the next.
In fairness to Holmes, she appeared
to have at least equal parts of idealism and greed when she started
Theranos. Her family tree included
the wealthy Fleischmanns of Fleischmann's Yeast fame, as well as
the man who founded both the Cincinnati General Hospital and the
University of Cincinnati's medical
school back when healthcare was
regarded much more as a calling
than as a way to make lots of money.
But if you subscribe to the theory
that most peoples' personalities are
basically in place by the age of six, a
conversation that a family member
recalled with the ten-year-old Elizabeth is telling. When asked what she
wanted to do when she grew up, she
replied immediately, "I want to be

SEPTEMBER 2019

a billionaire." And these days, the
flawed results of the Theranos devicbest place to do that is Silicon Vales to the government, Sunny explodley, where Holmes headed for coled and ordered them to report only
lege and where Theranos was based
the good results from the machines
during its skyrocket-like existence.
that weren't made by Theranos.
Anyone looking for a story full of
Several people thought this was
bad examples for business or engiwrong, including Tyler Shultz, a recent
neering ethics classes will prize this
Stanford mechanical-engineering
book. Should you date somebody
graduate and George Shultz's grandson, who had recently joined the firm.
at your job who also works for you?
For most of Theranos's existence, Holmes's second-incommand was one Ramesh
Balwani, known to one and
Young, idealistic engineers can
all as "Sunny." A more ironic nickname could not be
suddenly find themselves in a
imagined, as over the years
Sunny began to play Lavrenmoral quagmire.
tiy Beria to Holmes's Stalin
(Beria was Stalin's secret
When Tyler tried to talk with Holmes
police chief who carried out most
about the issue, she referred him to
of his boss's execution orders). The
someone who basically told him he
only heads that rolled at Theranos
was wrong and everything was fine.
were figurative ones, but as the
Then Tyler reached out to a New
stress rose of attempting the imposYork State proficiency-testing agency,
sible and covering it up when it
which confirmed to him that his susfailed, staff turnover rose along with
picions were well grounded. Feeling
it, sometimes voluntary and just as
that further discussions with Theroften involuntary.
anos employees would be fruitless,
Sunny generally delivered the bad
Tyler went to someone he thought
news to whoever got escorted out
would believe him: his grandfather,
of the building that day. And it also
who was on the board of directors
appears that Sunny and Elizabeth
at the time. This led, not to Tyler's
became live-in lovers early on, though
immediate vindication, but to GrandSunny was about twenty years older
pa George ratting on him to Sunny,
than she was. Not only that, but she
who sent Tyler a flaming email that
kept the relationship a secret as long
inspired Tyler to resign, despite warnas she could.
ings from his mother that if he quit
Should you falsify engineering
and caused any trouble, his grandtest results? When Theranos ran
father said that "he would lose." So
proficiency tests to comply with the
much for family ties.
federal agency rules governing cliniI have described Tyler's dilemma
cal laboratories, the Theranos testat some length because I think engiing devices gave answers that were
neering students in particular can
all over the map, even though the
identify with a young, idealistic engistaff were beginning to use them on
neer who suddenly finds himself in a
actual patient samples. By comparimoral quagmire, full of alligators that
son, some commercial blood-testthreaten to end his career before it
ing devices that Theranos obtained
starts. Fortunately, the Iron Curtain of
from established companies passed
secrecy surrounding Theranos's misthe tests. When the scientists rundeeds eventually fell, though Holmes
ning the tests wanted to report the
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

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