exchanges, Chelsea mentioned her job blues, prompting Elizabeth to
write back, “Why don’t you come work for me?”
Chelsea went to see Elizabeth at the Hillview Avenue office. It didn’t
take her friend long to sell her on Theranos. Elizabeth talked fervently
about a future in which the company would save lives with its
technology. It sounded a lot more interesting and noble to Chelsea
than helping investment bankers find jobs. And Elizabeth was so
persuasive. She had this intense way of looking at you while she spoke
that made you believe in her and want to follow her.
They quickly settled on a role for Chelsea: she would work in the
client solutions group, which was in charge of setting up the validation
studies Theranos was conducting to try to win pharmaceutical
companies’ business. Chelsea’s first assignment would be to organize a
study with Centocor, a division of Johnson & Johnson.
When she reported for her new job a few days later, Chelsea learned
that she wasn’t the only friend Elizabeth had hired. Just a week earlier,
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani had come on board as a senior Theranos
executive. Chelsea had met Sunny once or twice but didn’t know him
well. She just knew he was Elizabeth’s boyfriend and that they were
living together in an apartment in Palo Alto. Elizabeth hadn’t
mentioned anything about Sunny joining the company, yet Chelsea
now faced the reality of having to work with him. Or was it for him?
She wasn’t sure whether she reported to Sunny or to Elizabeth.
Sunny’s title, executive vice chairman, was both lofty and vague.
Whatever his role was meant to be, he didn’t waste any time asserting
himself. From the get-go, he involved himself in every aspect of the
company and became omnipresent.
Sunny was a force of nature, and not in a good way. Though only
about five foot five and portly, he made up for his diminutive stature
with an aggressive, in-your-face management style. His thick eyebrows
and almond-shaped eyes, set above a mouth that drooped at the edges
and a square chin, projected an air of menace. He was haughty and
demeaning toward employees, barking orders and dressing people
down.
Chelsea took an immediate dislike to him even though he made an