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Essay / The Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes: The Massive Theranos Scam
In extreme cases of the world's worst leaders, Elizabeth Holmes stands out considerably because of the scale and timing of her Massive scam took place. The history of Elezabth and her company Thermonos is closely linked. His company, Thernos, was once valued at $9 billion and promised a bright future, bringing massive attention and wealth, but it was later revealed to be a massive scam. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Elizabeth Anne Holmes dreamed from a young age that she would one day be a successful entrepreneur. She is famous, from a young age, for answering her family's questions about her future with elaborate responses such as "I want to be a billionaire." She was never told that she couldn't accomplish everything she wanted. Some say his ambition came from his parents Christian and Noel Holmes. If we go back to Elisabeth's family, it goes all the way back to Marshal Davout, one of Napoleon's main generals. Into the timeline comes a Hungarian immigrant named Charles Louis Fleischman. Born in the 1800s, he was the founder of a famous yeast company, Fleischmann Yeast, which would make the family one of the richest families of the 20th century. His great-great-grandfather was a Danish physician named Christian Holmes, who later established the Cincinnati Medical School and Cincinnati General Hospital. Christian used his already rich family ties to bring together business and political connections to make all his ambitions a reality. Elizabeth's mother, Noel, was a graduate of West Point and went on to work at the Pentagon in the 1970s, then on Capitol Hill as a congressional committee staffer, foreign policy fellow and defense aide. Even with an impressive past, the family was not perfect, many family members struggled with alcoholism and personal issues. Elizabeth's father, Christian Rasmus Holmes IV or Chris for short, held numerous county leadership positions in government agencies such as the Department of State. He wanted Elizabeth to restore the family's ambition. He would teach her about the family's past, the good and the bad. Chris would always blame his father and grandfather for recklessness and the weakening of the family fortune. Elizabeth Anne Holmes was born on February 3, 1984 in Washington, DC. Throughout her childhood, she was a slender girl with big blue eyes and a creative mind. She was always characterized as extremely competitive, but never apart from the popular crowd. She attended prestigious schools across the United States while her parents moved for work. She suffered from eating disorders in an attempt to fit in with her peers, but still remained focused in school. Elizabeth was an honor student who studied late into the night and got little rest. Elizabeth's father arranged for a tutor to come every Saturday to teach her Mandarin. She later became quite fluent and was the only non-college student to take a special Mandarin program at Stanford which later sent her for a four-week program in Beijing. Elizabeth says she was interested in computer programming and started her first business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities. Elizabeth knew what her end goal was: to become an entrepreneur. She decided to join Stanford to pursue a degree in biochemistry. Elizabeth knew Stanford would be for her becausethat she wanted nothing less than the best education possible. She wanted to be heard by top professors and like-minded peers with similar ambitions. In her non-academic life, she traveled a lot. Her mother Noel would take young Elizabeth and her little brothers to Boca Raton, Florida. Where his aunt and uncle owned a luxurious condominium. During her later years of high school, she dated the son of a beloved orthopedic surgeon. The couple would travel around the country attending elaborate events. The house she grew up in was covered in photographs of her father as he oversaw humanitarian efforts and distressed countries around the world. This was in his attempt to discipline Elizabeth on the importance of living a purposeful life and not just seeking economic gain. Because her interest was in biochemical engineering, she needed to create something that would not only make her money, but change the industry itself. In the spring of 2002, Elizabeth was accepted to Stanford University with a prestigious Presidents Scholar that came with a grant for an intellectual interest of her liking. It was a climactic moment in Elizabeth's life and would set the stage for everything that followed. Very early in her time at Stanford, she met Professor Robertson, head of Stanford's chemical engineering department. The two made a connection with Elizabeth, who later helped him in his own research laboratory. He was impressed enough to recommend her for his Ph.D. students working on research projects. “I have never met a student like this before among the thousands of students I had spoken to back then.” Roberson said she was special and contained a high degree of determination. Shortly after Elizabeth started her business under the name Real-Time Cures, Professor Robertson joined the board of directors and other students from the school became the first workers. Elizabeth then changed the name to “Theranos, a combination of the words therapy and diagnostics.” Elizabeth managed to gather massive support from various deep-pocketed figures. Money started flowing into the new startup, so Elizabeth continued to experiment with new ideas. She filed various patents, including a few, until she realized what the industry really needed. “A cartridge and reader system that blended the fields of microfluidics and biochemistry. The patient pricked her finger to take a small sample of blood and placed it in a cartridge that looked like a thick credit card. The cartridge would fit into a larger machine called a drive.” It would be an industry-wide game changer if it could be brought to market. Patients could instantly send results to their doctor, wherever they want. The whole project had huge potential and in response, the Thernos team dropped everything and focused solely on this project. The team began to grow and make significant progress by adding different elements to the business such as marketing and human resources. Elizabeth developed an obsession with progress and implemented higher than normal standards for the company. This could be due to his personal way of handling his work; no sleep, coffee all day, and endless hours until a task is completed. “One evening, Elizabeth came to her workspace. She was frustrated with the pace of their progress and wanted to run the engineering department twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week..