Re:Theranos CEO Says 'I Don't Know' 600+ Times in Deposition
by samstave on Thursday January 24, 2019 @12:17PM
(#18990625)
Part of the reason she was able to fool such highly prominent people is due to her coming from really old money in the US - with her Fleischmann's Yeast family lineage - her family was in the upper echelons of US monied families (think robber baron class-money).
Re:Theranos CEO Says 'I Don't Know' 600+ Times in Deposition
by emaginniss on Thursday January 24, 2019 @12:27PM
(#18990746)
Historically, yes, but her immediate family was not particularly wealthy, lived a middle-class lifestyle, and was even in difficult financial straits at times. I think they had the remnants of money on them, but not the actual capital.
Re:Theranos CEO Says 'I Don't Know' 600+ Times in Deposition
by naniwaduni on Thursday January 24, 2019 @12:37PM
(#18990856)
An illustration of how wealth and power, inherited across generations, consists of far more than just liquid assets.
Re:Theranos CEO Says 'I Don't Know' 600+ Times in Deposition
by micah94 on Thursday January 24, 2019 @12:11PM
(#18990571)
I haven't read the book. I would like to because I have a hard time believing a story where that list of people you mention are "fooled".
Re:Theranos CEO Says 'I Don't Know' 600+ Times in Deposition
by acdanger on Thursday January 24, 2019 @12:16PM
(#18990612)
It seemed to me that they weren't actively "fooled", rather they didn't perform the due diligence you would expect a board member to perform before signing up. But I got the impression this might not be uncommon among startup boards.
Also if I recall, there was a lack of medical knowledge on the board as well which surely contributed to the failures in oversight.
Investors: by the Walton family ($150 million), Rupert Murdoch ($121 million), Betsy DeVos ($100 million), the Cox family (of Cox Media Group) ($100 million), and Robert Kraft (of the New England Patriots).
You would figure there was no faking these people out. How do you dupe former Secretary of States and Generals whom are supposed to be some of the most stringent, dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. It's just an amazing story of how personality can change everything and cause people to have massive blindspots.