Don’t ignore wrongdoing, even while ‘changing the world,’ Olafson Ethics Symposium lecturer Erika Cheung tells UND
Last month, the UND campus community heard from a prominent whistleblower on the importance of speaking up when ethical standards are violated.
Erika Cheung, best known for uncovering unscrupulous practices at the health technology startup Theranos, delivered the keynote lecture at the 19th annual Olafson Ethics Symposium.
The symposium – honoring the philanthropic support of UND alumnus Robert Olafson – invites speakers spanning the business community to lecture on the importance of personal and professional ethics.
In her lecture, Cheung chronicled the rise and fall of her former employer. Founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes – a 19-year-old dropout of Stanford University – Theranos sought to transform the traditional model of venous blood testing with a device called the Edison.
Using a single drop of blood obtained via finger prick, Holmes claimed the Edison could detect a range of chronic conditions including diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Investors were bullish. At the company’s height, Theranos was bolstered by hundreds of millions in venture capital, and a board of directors including former U.S. Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, and former Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
Cheung called this period – spanning roughly 2013-2015 — Silicon Valley’s heyday, when the tech industry was lionized by the public.
“You had people...
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