Theranos Whistleblower Speaks at Albers

Erika Cheung, a key whistleblower in the Theranos case that gripped the world, visited Albers on April 4th, 2024, as a guest of the Center for Business Ethics (CBE).

Ethical Leadership: Cautionary Tales from Theranos and Silicon Valley had Cheung recounting her experience at the now infamous startup. Her presentation was followed by a fireside chat with CBE head and Frank Shrontz Chair in Professional Ethics Jeffery Smith.

Before the event at Pigott Auditorium, Cheung did a class visit with students from two finance courses, Impact Investing and Entrepreneurial Finance. Both classes will be studying the Theranos case, focusing on questions of venture capital/startup business cultures and the role of corporate governance in fraud cases such as Theranos.

Cheung also dropped by a Leadership Executive MBA class where she led a discussion on the pressures of leadership that lead leaders astray. The discussion covered questions about the Theranos case posed to students, including whether what happened to Theranos was a matter of bad actors, a bad organizational environment, a system-wide failure, or some combination of all three.

Erika Cheung is the Executive Director of Ethics in Entrepreneurship, a non-profit organization with the mission to embed ethical questioning, culture, and systems in start-up ecosystems worldwide. She began her career working as a medical researcher in the biotechnology industry and is most famously known for being a key whistle-blower reporting the medical-diagnostic company Theranos to health regulators. 

Erika went on to help launch a technology accelerator in Hong Kong supporting early-stage technology investments across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. She continues to advise and support the development of biotechnology and healthcare initiatives across the APAC region.

Ethical Leadership: Cautionary Tales from Theranos and Silicon Valley was organized by the Center for Business Ethics with partnering sponsors Student Government of Seattle University (SGSU) and the School of Law's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program.