Aaron decided he better fess up before things got further out of
control. He sheepishly came forward and confessed to Tony. It was
meant as an innocent prank, he explained. He thought people would
find it amusing. Tony seemed understanding. He’d taken part in a few
pranks of his own at Logitech when he worked there. But he warned
Aaron that Elizabeth was furious.
Later in the day, she called Aaron into her office and stared at him
with dagger eyes. She was deeply disappointed in him, she told him.
She didn’t find his little stunt funny at all, and neither did other
employees. It was disrespectful to the people who’d worked so hard to
make the product. He could forget about joining the sales team. She
couldn’t put him in front of customers. This showed he represented
the company poorly. Aaron went back to his cubicle with the
knowledge that he was now squarely in Elizabeth’s doghouse.
—
A MOVE TO SALES would probably have been ill-advised anyway.
Unbeknownst to Aaron, trouble was brewing in that corner of the
company. A new employee named Todd Surdey had come on board to
head up sales and marketing, a role previously played by Elizabeth
herself.
Todd was the consummate sales executive. Before joining Theranos,
he had worked at several established companies, including most
recently the German enterprise software juggernaut SAP. He was fit
and good-looking, wore nice suits, and rolled up every day in a fancy
BMW. During lunchtime, he pulled a carbon fiber road bike out of his
trunk and went on rides in the nearby hills. Aaron liked to cycle too
and accompanied Todd a few times in an attempt to buddy up to him
before his prank put him in the penalty box with Elizabeth.
Todd’s two sales subordinates were based on the East Coast, where
all the big pharmaceutical companies were headquartered. One of
them was Susan DiGiaimo, an employee who operated out of her home
in New Jersey and had worked for Theranos for nearly two years.
Susan had accompanied Elizabeth on numerous sales pitches to