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Case Study

Elizabeth Holmes (B): The downfall

4 pages

June 2017

Reference: IMD-7-1918

This case outlines the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos. The company offered a technology with the potential to revolutionize the blood drawing and analysis industry. After dropping out of Stanford and building the company over a ten-year period, Holmes moved out of “stealth mode” and was soon touted as an iconic entrepreneur and the new Steve Jobs. The publication of a Wall Street Journal article, however, highlighted irregularities with the technology and Theranos’s claims thus bringing company under closer examination.

Learning Objective

Explore the role of the board in overseeing companies.

Keywords

Corporate Governance, Analysis

Settings

United States of America
Theranos, Manufacturing, Technology, Healthcare
2003-2016

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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