Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2014
Born	Elizabeth Anne Holmes (1984-02-03) February 3, 1984 (age 33) Washington, D.C., US
Residence	Palo Alto, California, US
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Stanford University (attended)
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 and inventor. She is the founder and CEO of Theranos, a privately-held blood test company based in Palo Alto, California. In 2015, Forbes named Holmes as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world due to a $9 billion valuation of Theranos. The next year Forbes revised her net value "From $4.5 Billion to Nothing". She was also named as TIME's "100 Most Influential People" of 2015. In 2016, after a series of journalistic and regulatory investigations that questioned the veracity of Theranos' claims, federal prosecutors began criminal investigations for potentially misleading investors and the government about the company's blood-testing technology. Following the revelation of potential fraud, Fortune named Holmes one of the "World's Most Disappointing Leaders". 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. That decision is under appeal.

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. 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." Holmes studied Mandarin as a child and completed three years of summer language classes at Stanford University before graduating from high school.

She attended St. John's School in Houston and was recognized for her "tireless optimism and a particularly warm smile." During high school, Holmes was interested in computer programming and started her first business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities. 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.