Ramesh Balwani is an entrepreneur from the United States. Ramesh Balwani served as the president of Theranos Biotechnology Company, a privately held health technology firm. He has also served as Theranos’ former chief operating officer (COO).
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Childhood and Early Years
Ramesh Balwani is a 55-year-old Indian businessman. He was born to a Hindu family in Pakistan on June 13, 1965. However, his precise date of birth is unclear, as Wikipedia lists him as having been born between March and June 1965. His family later relocated to India since living as a Hindu in Pakistan was tough. His family then relocated to the United States.
When it comes to his personal life, little is known about his parents and family members. He is of Indian-American nationality and Asian heritage.
In 1986, Ramesh Balwani enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Pakistani Students Association. He has a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence and information systems.
He returned to school in 2003 to obtain a master’s degree in business administration at the University of California, Berkeley. He met Elizabeth Holmes while he was at Berkeley. She was a senior in high school at the time. He also studied another four years at Stanford University in a computer science graduate program before dropping out in 2009.
Career
Balwani worked for Lotus software and Microsoft before launching Commercebid, according to his resume. Balwani joined Theranos in 2009, just a few years after Holmes launched it. He’d never got any formal training in biological sciences or medical technologies, which caused him a lot of problems. He dropped his chemical engineering degree to focus full-time on Theranos.
Similarly, his treatment of Theranos employees was unprofessional. He was aggressive, harsh, and demanding, according to the staff. In addition, he was worried about corporate espionage and attempted to preserve paranoid-level secrecy in business matters. Furthermore, Theranos claimed to have created devices that would use tiny blood quantities to automate and miniaturize blood tests. The device’s blood collecting vessel and analysis equipment were given the names “nanotainer” and “Edison” by the workers.
He even went so far as to compare the device’s development to the discovery of antibiotics. Similarly, Balwani used to talk about things he didn’t know about, which the staff picked up on. According to research published in October 2015, Theranos’ Edison blood-testing equipment provides inaccurate medical diagnoses and results. As a result, the device failed multiple quality-control checks and produced wildly uneven findings.
Similarly, in April 2016, the corporation was forced to invalidate all test results from the machines for the years 2014 and 2015. Despite running the tests on normal equipment, they had to invalidate the results of several other tests. Following an examination of Theranos’ Newark laboratory, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a warning letter to the business in January 2016. Balwani should be barred from owning or running a blood lab for two years, according to the CMS, because the company was unable to resolve the flaws in their California lab.
Legal Concerns
On March 14, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Balwani, Theranos, and Holmes with substantial fraud. He had been accused of violating the US Security Act four times as a result of this. He “concentrated on building software for Theranos’ technology and managing staff and operations,” according to the SEC, and “collaborated closely with [Holmes] and made company decisions jointly.” Balwani was further accused of lying and misleading pharmacists, grocery stores, and investors, according to the lawsuit.
Similarly, Theranos’ allegations included the company’s interactions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Balwani made fraudulent representations regarding Theranos not needing FDA permission or authorization, according to the SEC. On June 15, 2018, a federal grand jury indicted him and Holmes with nine charges of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, following a two-year investigation by the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
Net Worth and Awards
He has not been nominated or awarded, according to sources. He is, nonetheless, a hard worker. Ramesh Balwani does not presently work for any organization. He used to work with Theranos till 2018. As of 2020, his net worth is being assessed. He had a net worth of $85 million when he was younger. Theranos has now ceased to exist as a firm. At the moment, his net worth is $0, which is a significant reduction.
Relationship
Ramesh Balwani married Japanese artist Keiko Fujimoto, but the couple divorced in 2004. There isn’t much information on their marriage. They did, however, part ways.
Balwani has also been linked to Elizabeth Holmes in the past. They met in Berkeley in 2003, when Holmes was a Senior High School student of 18 years old. Furthermore, no one knew about their romance until Holmes revealed it during her 2017 deposition.
They ended their relationship due to a variety of professional and personal issues. Despite the fact that Elizabeth and her fiance, William Billy Evans, were engaged. In 2019, he works for Luminar Technology as a special projects manager.
Body Dimensions
Balwani is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 68 kilograms, according to online sources. In addition, he has black eyes and black hair. Aside from that, little is known about her other actions.