resignation letter and printed out two copies, one for Elizabeth and
one for HR. Elizabeth was out of the office by then, so she slipped the
letter under her door. On her way out, she typed out a quick email to
let her know where to find it.
Elizabeth emailed her back thirty minutes later, asking her to please
call her on her cell phone. Ana ignored her request. She was done with
Theranos.
—
DON LUCAS DIDN’T USE EMAIL. He’d seen his share of litigation over the
years, including a wave of class-action lawsuits targeting Oracle in the
early 1990s, and didn’t like the idea of leaving behind an electronic
paper trail that might one day be used against him in court. If Avie
wanted Don to see what he’d found, he’d have to show it to him in
person. He reached out to Don’s two assistants and set up another
meeting.
On the appointed day, Avie showed up at Don’s office with hard
copies of all the documents he had been given as a Theranos director.
It amounted to hundreds of pages. Taken together, they betrayed a
series of irreconcilable discrepancies, he told Don. The board had a
problem on its hands, he said. It was possible Theranos could be fixed,
but it wasn’t going to happen the way Elizabeth was managing things.
He suggested they bring in some adult supervision.
“Well, I think you should resign,” Don replied. He quickly added,
“What are you planning to do with that stack of papers?”
Avie was taken aback. Don didn’t even seem interested in hearing
him out. The older man seemed concerned only with whether he was
going to escalate the matter to the full board. After turning the
situation over in his mind for a few moments, Avie decided to stand
down. He’d retired from Apple for a reason. He didn’t need the
aggravation.
“OK, I’ll resign and I’ll leave these papers with you,” he said.
As Avie got up to leave, Don said there was something else they
needed to discuss. Shaunak Roy, Theranos’s first employee and de