Phyllis Gardner

Entrepreneurship After spending ten years in academia, Gardner became interested in research and development and entrepreneurship. She gained experience in companies seeking out venture capital funding.

Gardner was involved with several start-ups in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. She was an adjunct partner at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, from 1999 until 2015. She was appointed to the board of directors of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals in 2006. Holmes proposed her idea for a microfluidic device that could detect and treat infectious diseases. She explained to Holmes that it is not possible to use antibiotics on such a small scale. Holmes dropped out of Stanford a few months later, but Gardner followed the evolution of Theranos. Gardner did not permit Holmes to visit the Stanford campus and called for her to be sent to prison.

Personal life and death Gardner was married in 1984 to Andrew Perlman, Jay's positive experiences and comments about the support and resources at USC motivated his father to become a member of the USC Dornsife's Board of Councilors (BOC).

In media The Wall Street Journal investigative journalist John Carreyrou delved into the manner in which Elizabeth Holmes failed to convince Gardner to involve herself in her company Theranos; he recounted this in-depth in his 2018 book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. This relationship was investigated further in the 2019 Alex Gibney documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. Rebecca Jarvis delved into the early background between Gardner and Holmes, in her 2019 podcast about Theranos, The Dropout. In the 2022 show, The Dropout, based on the Jarvis podcast of the same name, Gardner appeared as a character, portrayed by Laurie Metcalf.

Awards and honors