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CME Group's Center for Innovation announced today that Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, is the 11th recipient of the CME Group Melamed-Arditti Innovation Award. Holmes founded the revolutionary blood diagnostics company, Theranos, to change health care from reactive to proactive, empowering individuals to usher in a new era of preventive care. CME Group will present the award at the eighth annual Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday, November 17.
The CME Group Melamed-Arditti Innovation Award strives to celebrate innovation that, through practical application, has had a positive impact on the economic well-being of individuals, industries or nations. This award honors an individual or group whose innovative ideas, products or services have created significant change to markets, commerce or trade.
"Elizabeth Holmes has invented and developed a lab diagnostic testing system that saves time and money, and helps people obtain critical information about their own health," said Leo Melamed, CME Group Chairman Emeritus and Founder of the Competitive Markets Advisory Council. "Due to her inventorship and under her leadership, Theranos' innovative technologies are not only set to disrupt the $75-billion lab testing industry, they're set to disrupt the health care paradigm as we know it."
"It is an honor and a privilege to receive this award, and be named among the many other talented and innovative leaders who have come before me," said Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos. "Innovation and technology should be used to address the world's greatest challenges. At Theranos, our mission is to make actionable health information accessible to everyone at the time it matters. This award recognizes our success in using technological innovations in laboratory testing to make tests more accessible - both logistically and financially - and less painful, which will help facilitate early detection and prevention of disease. It is our hope that through this innovation, more people will be able to live their best possible lives."
Holmes was studying chemical engineering at Stanford University and was only 19 years old when she applied for her first patent for a bodily fluid sensor system. She is currently a named inventor on 29 U.S. and 125 foreign patents. Holmes is the youngest self-made female billionaire on the Forbes 400 list.
Earlier this year, Holmes worked with leaders in Arizona to pass the first law that expressly recognizes individuals' right to directly access laboratory tests without first obtaining an order, which often requires justifying a health concern or relying on insurance eligibility.
She serves as a U.S. Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, is a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, and a recipient of numerous honors, including the 2015 TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Currently valued at $10 billion, Theranos is a full reference lab that has performed millions of tests through its Wellness Centers in Arizona, California and Pennsylvania, with plans to expand throughout the U.S. All of Theranos' tests are posted publicly at the same price for everyone, regardless of insurance status, and are billed at rates of 50 percent or less than the Medicare reimbursement rate. Theranos is leading transparency in lab testing, including committing to FDA review of all of its laboratory developed tests and publishing its prices, lab proficiency testing scores, customer satisfaction scores, guest visit times, and more.
The CME Group Melamed-Arditti Innovation Award recipient, formerly known as the Fred Arditti Innovation Award, is chosen annually by members of the Competitive Markets Advisory Council (CMAC). The award's namesakes are Leo Melamed, in recognition of his revolutionary achievements in introducing financial futures instruments to the world in 1972; and former CME Group Chief Economist Fred Arditti, who was instrumental in developing the index upon which CME Group's Eurodollar futures contract, the world's most actively traded futures contract, was based. Past recipients of the award are:
- 2014 - Ben Bernanke, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (2006-2014);
- 2013 - Sal Kahn, Founder, Khan Academy;
- 2012 - Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia;
- 2011 - Myron Scholes, Frank E. Buck Professor of Finance Emeritus, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1997) and Robert Merton, School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1997);
- 2010 - David Ferrucci, Head of Semantic Analysis and Integration, DeepQA/Watson, IBM;
- 2009 - Harry Markowitz, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1990);
- 2008 - Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Former Mayor of the City of New York;
- 2007 - Eugene Fama, Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (2013);
- 2006 - Leo Melamed, founder of financial futures and CME Group chairman emeritus;
- 2005 - William F. Sharpe, STANCO 25 Professor of Finance Emeritus, Stanford University, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (1990).
To read more about Holmes, and follow coverage of the Melamed-Arditti award presentation at the Global Financial Leadership Conference, visit CME Group's online magazine and blog, OpenMarkets, at www.openmarkets.com. To access additional information about the conference as well as previous GFLC video, photo and press highlights, visit the conference website at www.gflc.com.
