It's almost as if they intentionally stacked it with senators, govenrnment, and military guys. This is not a typical board, especially for a medical company.
That's not strictly true, the board composition was far more traditional prior to 2013, a lot of these government guys came on at that point. From the wikipedia article:
In July 2013, the composition of the Theranos board of directors changed markedly, with departure of Channing Robertson (emeritus professor, chemical engineering, Stanford University),[39] experienced pharma and biotech executive Robert B. Shapiro (former chairman/CEO of the Pharmacia, Monsanto, and G.D. Searle group of companies), and financier Pete Thomas (principal, ATA Ventures).[6][38] Remaining from the original board were Theranos President and COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani and former Secretary of State George Shultz;
Yes. Up until a few weeks ago, Theranos's board consisted of mostly ex-Pentagon and ex-Senators and such types [0]. Theranos did not have a medical advisory board until about a month ago, apparently.
Contrast with Elon Musk and SpaceX. One of Musk's first hires/co-founders for SpaceX was Tom Mueller, who at the time was already widely regarded as one of the best rocket engine designers in the world [1].
The more I read about theranos the more apparent it is that there is something fundamentally wrong with it's core goals, leadership and technology. One easily identifiable red flag is the composition of its board. It's nearly all ex-military and government officials not veteran entrepreneurs and technologists. Just to name a few: George Shultz (former Secretary of State), Sam Nunn and Bill Frist (former U.S. Senators), James Mattis (General, USMC, retired) and Gary Roughead (Admiral, USN, retired) Henry Kissinger (former Secretary of State), William Perry (former Secretary of Defense)
same same but different. Although this does look like Theranos is is some kind of death spiral with the bad press it has recently received.
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