PAGE Video Series: Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes is committed to improving living conditions around the world for women, young girls and developing economies. As CEO and founder of Theranos, a consumer healthcare technology company, she wants people to know that they can stand up for themselves and live their best lives.

In 2003, Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos at the age of 19 with the mission to make actionable health information accessible to people everywhere at the time it matters, enabling early detection and intervention of disease, and empowering individuals with information to live the lives they want to live. Holmes left Stanford University's School of Engineering to build Theranos around her patents and belief that access to health information is a basic human right. For the last decade, she has led the company from concept to reality, enabling a new paradigm of consumer health and prevention. Theranos' breakthrough advancements have made it possible to quickly process the full range of laboratory tests from a few drops of blood - instead of numerous tubes. The tests also come at unprecedented low costs and are now directly accessible to people and their physicians through Theranos Wellness Centers opening nationwide.

Elizabeth led the passing of the first law in our nation's history to give individuals the explicit right to direct access laboratory testing. The law was based on a draft she wrote, enfranchising 7 million people from Arizona, facilitating engagement with and protection of physicians, and creating a model for other states across the country to shift toward preventative care, individual empowerment and price transparency.  Holmes is the youngest person to be awarded the Horatio Alger Award, and was named one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015.

Elizabeth’s rise in the entrepreneurship and healthcare worlds led to her appointment as a Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) initiative member. Elizabeth’s PAGE initiative focuses on two central tenets core to her own life mission: empowering women in science, technology, mathematics and business, and working on breakthroughs in global health. Elizabeth will spend time in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East mentoring and supporting young women, and will partner with the U.S. Department of State's TechWomen program to work with the next generation of global female leaders in Silicon Valley and in their home countries. Elizabeth will also work with USAID’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact (CII) and USAID's Bureau for Global Health on realizing breakthroughs in global health, especially related to the containment of infectious diseases.

Watch Elizabeth Holmes speak about how she plans to empower young female entrepreneurs and raise awareness for global health with PAGE here.

About PAGE:

Launched in April 2014, PAGE was created to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs both at home and abroad. The initiative formed as a partnership among celebrated entrepreneurs, the White House, the Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of State. In the initiative’s first year, PAGE members utilized their knowledge, ideas, and talent to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs both at home and around the world to promote the program’s mission. As PAGE kicks off its second year, each ambassador has agreed to take the lead on his or her own signature initiative to address the global growing demand for engagement with America’s most respected and celebrated business creators.