Sunny Balwani has left his position as president and COO of embattled blood-testing firm Theranos, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company announced Wednesday that it was shaking up its board and adding members with experience in the biomedical field.
These changes come in the wake of a US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services inspection of the company's California lab that uncovered problems with some of its testing practices, including one that regulators said posed an "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety." CMS later proposed banning Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Balwani from owning or operating a lab. Theranos is also the subject of a federal criminal investigation as well as a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry.
Balwani had been with Theranos since 2009, and held positions at Lotus and Microsoft prior to joining the company, the Journal adds.
The board's new additions include Fabrizio Bonanni, a retired Amgen executive vice president; William Foege, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Richard Kovacevich, Wells Fargo's former CEO.
Bonanni tells the New York Times that he thinks the company will listen to whatever ideas he has about how to structure the business and who to hire. "I saw a group of people who are eager to listen and eager to learn," he adds.
Theranos also tells the Times that these changes have nothing to do with the company's regulatory woes. "This is about building our company," Holmes tells the paper. "This is about realizing the next stage of our growth."
The Journal notes Balwani's duties at Theranos included oversight of the California lab where inspectors uncovered a number of deficiencies.