Thread by @jflier

Here is a thread on Elizabeth Holmes and how she had a brief relationship to Harvard Medical School.1

With publication of Bad Blood by John Carreyrou and the HBO documentary “The Inventor” based upon it, many have asked me how Elizabeth Holmes became a member of and then left the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows (BOF).2

The BOF is a non-fiduciary board with members appointed by the dean. The members have diverse backgrounds, and convene twice a year to discuss the school, offer advice to the dean, and participate in networking and fundraising for the school.3

The BOF has 40 or so members of diverse backgrounds and expertise. Although non fiduciary, I found the BOF very helpful as I navigated the complex challenges of leading HMS.4

The process for choosing new members was informal. Several times a year I met with several members who advised on this topic. Choices did not involve discussion or voting by all members, but required consensus among dean, chair and co-chair.5

I first heard of Elizabeth Holmes by reading the Ken Auletta @NewYorker piece about her and Theranos in December 2014. It was a powerful portrait, raising many provocative questions about her and Theranos. I suspected I would hear more about her.6

I was then called by a senior @HarvardHBS faculty about an HBS health symposium where they wanted her as keynote speaker. He asked me to contact former Senator Bill Frist to help. He was an HMS grad, BOF member, former Senate Maj Leader, and I learned, on the Theranos Board.7

I asked Bill, and he said he would ask Elizabeth. Several days later he told me that she would have been delighted, but could not make the date requested. He said she would be happy to meet me if she was in Boston or I in Palo Alto.8

Her office soon contacted mine to say she would be speaking at Harvard College, and she requested to meet me for lunch. I agreed, and we had lunch in a private room at the Faculty Club, with one of her guards posted outside.9

After small talk, she presented the Theranos vision as widely reported. Her passion was evident, but I pushed back on her claim of many people refusing testing for fear of needles, and expressed my concerns re over-testing and over-diagnosis. She didn’t seem to get this.10

As time ran out, we agreed to continue the discussion. She handed me an order sheet for 75 Theranos blood tests at a Walgreens location. It seemed to be quite real.11

I ended by asking if she might wish to get involved with HMS, which was my plan going in. She said this appealed to her far more than many boards she had declined. I told her I would get back soon with ideas for involvement. 12

I discussed this with several board leaders, and we agreed that as a young highly successful woman health entrepreneur, reputed to be worth 4 billion dollars, it would be worth asking her to join the board. I asked, and she accepted. The next BOF meeting would be Oct 15, 2015.13

Oct 15, 2015 the BOF began a 2 day meeting at the Harvard Club. Among items on a packed agenda, I was to introduce new BOF members. In the minutes before the meeting, several members alerted me to the blockbuster page 1 @JohnCarreyrou WSJ article exposing problems at Theranos.14

EH took her seat at the huge circular table, looking calm and content. I made my prepared introduction, and polite applause followed. During various coffee breaks, the WSJ piece was the main topic. As a new member, she said little or nothing at the meeting.15

Dinner for 50 was in the home of a BOF member, and she was placed beside me. I was told she’d be late, as she was doing a TV interview. She arrived with dessert, and seemed totally composed and relaxed. Said she was responding to “a crazy attack” on her company and vision.16

She quickly departed, at which time one BOF member told me she knew her from early days at Stanford, and “it was a pity I hadn’t asked her about EH before the offer to join the BOF”. Indeed. This member had many stories to tell. 17

When contacted by the press after the WSJ piece, EH’s office said she was unavailable due to being at an HMS meeting. When we were contacted, we confirmed she was present, but not surprisingly, nothing more. 18

Over the next 6 months, we debated what to do. Some counseled immediate removal, others suggested waiting to see how the story played out. Given the BOF’s non-fiduciary nature, and reluctance to convict based on a newspaper article, we held off.19

She contacted me once asking me to recommend the best expert at HMS on lab testing methods, saying she wanted to conduct and publish an external review. I made appropriate contacts, but never heard the result.20

Later that year, as accounts of problems at Theranos mounted, we decided it was time to act. I asked a trusted board member to ask her to resign. He did, and she agreed.21

Lessons? When offered BOF membership, available info suggested she was a great catch. Young women visionary entrepreneurs with great wealth aren’t easy to find and engage. One insider who knew her might have alerted us to problems but didn’t. One who would have wasn’t asked.22

EH attended one BOF meeting, and was then asked to resign within the year. The only damage to HMS was a brief period when we tried to balance fairness to her with reputational damage from our association. Hopefully something like this won’t happen again. END

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