WHISTLEBLOWER · FOUNDER · SPEAKER

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so you can build better.

I help people and organizations navigate the hard calls, the moments when the right thing isn't obvious. I build ventures and advise leaders in boardrooms, startups, courtrooms, and on the mat.

Shared Insights with
Stanford University
UC Berkeley
TED
Wall Street Journal
SCMP
MIT
Harvard
Temasek
Bloomberg
60 Minutes
The New York Times
Westpoint
NBC News
Alibaba
CBS News
NPR
STAT
Nature
Stanford University
UC Berkeley
TED
Wall Street Journal
SCMP
MIT
Harvard
Temasek
Bloomberg
60 Minutes
The New York Times
Westpoint
NBC News
Alibaba
CBS News
NPR
STAT
Nature

WORK

Projects & Initiatives

Formerly Ethics in Entrepreneurship

Ethical Crossroads

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER

A nonprofit helping founders and emerging-tech companies make the hard calls before they become headlines. We turn ethics from an abstraction into something practical: resources, mentorship, and frameworks for people building under real pressure.

NONPROFIT

Whistleblower Advocacy

ADVOCATE & ADVISOR

I serve as a board member and advisor to leading whistleblower nonprofits. Whistleblowers are often the guardians of the public interest, but few people see how many go through the process alone. I help build the support networks and public understanding people deserve when they speak up about wrongdoing that threatens health, safety, and financial integrity.

Consultancy & Mentorship

entrepreneurship

I work hands-on with a small number of founders, executives, and teams navigating the complexity of entrepreneurship and cross-border partnerships. From go-to-market and Asia-US partnerships to culture and leadership, I draw on my experience across biotech, venture capital, and Hong Kong's startup ecosystem to help teams build smarter and go further.

Responsible Innovation Services Coalition (RISC)

Founding Member

A professional network connecting organizations with responsible-innovation talent, starting with AI safety, risk, and ethics. We help startups and enterprises find the tools and people they need to innovate with trust built in from the start.

SPEAKING

Engagements & Keynotes

TOPICS

I speak to audiences worldwide about ethics, courage, and the future of responsible innovation. The talks draw on first-hand experience as a Theranos whistleblower and the accountability work I've done since.

01

Theranos: Uncovering a Silicon Valley Fraud

02

Building a Speak-up Culture

03

Whistleblower Rights & Methods of Corporate Accountability

04

Ethical Red Flags & Fraud Detection in Venture-Backed Companies

05

Innovation & Entrepreneurial Ethics

BOOK FOR SPEAKING ↗

SELECT PAST EVENTS

Hulu's The Drop Out
Hulu's The Drop Out
Character in fictional Depiction · 2022
The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley
The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley
Source· 2019
TED: Speaking Truth to Power
TED: Speaking Truth to Power
Speaker · 2020
A Slight Change in Plans
A Slight Change in Plans
Podcast · 2024
Working with Whistleblowers: What journalist should know
Working with Whistleblowers: What journalist should know
Panelists · 2024
Building a More Ethical Future: All Social Change Begins With a Conversation
Building a More Ethical Future: All Social Change Begins With a Conversation
Event Organizer· 2024
WHAT PEOPLE SAY

"Erika was an outstanding speaker and her presentation was very impactful and appreciated by our audience. Would definitely recommend!"

Medtronic

"Erika was outstanding. She was amazing with the students and shared such an incredible story along with impressive knowledge. She was a delight to host on campus! "

University of South Dakota

"The sessions was great, really powerful and impactful!"

Deloitte

"Erika was an outstanding speaker and her presentation was very impactful and appreciated by our audience. Would definitely recommend!"

Medtronic

"Erika was outstanding. She was amazing with the students and shared such an incredible story along with impressive knowledge. She was a delight to host on campus! "

University of South Dakota

"The sessions was great, really powerful and impactful!"

Deloitte

ABOUT

How I Got Here

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TIMELINE

2005

Homeschooled and started community college at age 14

2012

Graduated from UC Berkeley

2014

Raised concerns about faulty blood-testing

Hired at Theranos and Raised concerns about faulty blood-testing

2015

Reported findings to regulators

2016

Moved to Hong Kong, building cross-border innovation between the US & Asia

2018

Testified & contributed to Theranos investigation

2020

Founded Ethics in Entrepreneurship

Founded Ethical Crossroads (formerly Ethics in Entrepreneurship)

2022

Featured in Hulu’s “The Dropout” & became an official TED Speaker

2025

Global advocate for ethical innovation

I grew up in California, in a one-bedroom trailer my family shared. The hard part was never the tight quarters. The hard part about where I grew up was watching good people slip into bad situations that became difficult for them to escape. I was powerless to stop it then, and now it’s fueled a lifelong pursuit of understanding why people suffer needlessly, and what can actually be done about it.

I grew up in California, in a one-bedroom trailer my family shared. The hard part was never the tight quarters. The hard part about where I grew up was watching good people slip into bad situations that became difficult for them to escape. I was powerless to stop it then, and now it’s fueled a lifelong pursuit of understanding why people suffer needlessly, and what can actually be done about it.

Straight out of college, I landed what appeared to be my dream job. I was an entry-level lab associate at Theranos, a startup valued at $9 billion that promised to revolutionize healthcare diagnostics. It didn't take long to see that the technology didn't work, the data was unreliable, and patients' lives were at risk. I became one of the whistleblowers, reporting to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and to the Wall Street Journal.

Straight out of college, I landed what appeared to be my dream job. I was an entry-level lab associate at Theranos, a startup valued at $9 billion that promised to revolutionize healthcare diagnostics. It didn't take long to see that the technology didn't work, the data was unreliable, and patients' lives were at risk. I became one of the whistleblowers, reporting to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and to the Wall Street Journal.

After facing retaliation from my former employer, I left the US and moved to Hong Kong. I helped launch Betatron, a new VC firm and accelerator. Building the city's startup ecosystem became one of the most rewarding chapters of my life. The experience also gave me a front-row seat to the crypto ICO craze and the wave of fraud that followed. Naively, I assumed Theranos was a bizarre one-off scandal, but I recognized it wasn’t. Wherever hype outruns substance, ethical lines blur a little at a time, and real people get hurt. I couldn't put the question down: how do we build responsibly, not in theory but in practice?

After facing retaliation from my former employer, I left the US and moved to Hong Kong. I helped launch Betatron, a new VC firm and accelerator. Building the city's startup ecosystem became one of the most rewarding chapters of my life. The experience also gave me a front-row seat to the crypto ICO craze and the wave of fraud that followed. Naively, I assumed Theranos was a bizarre one-off scandal, but I recognized it wasn’t. Wherever hype outruns substance, ethical lines blur a little at a time, and real people get hurt. I couldn't put the question down: how do we build responsibly, not in theory but in practice?

That question became Ethical Crossroads (originally Ethics in Entrepreneurship), a way to make ethics practical, approachable, and actually useful to the people making the calls. The technologies we're building now are more powerful than anything I watched fall apart. The harms go beyond one company's patients or one industry's investors. The cost of carelessness can pose serious catastrophic risks that humanity can't walk back from. Today, that work has taken me to the frontier of AI ethics, safety, risk, and biosecurity.

I work in ethics not because I think people are bad, but because I've watched good intentions flounder when pressure runs high, and when people face the hard decisions alone. I've stood at the crossroads myself: unsure, afraid, and acting anyway. Now I work on the most personal mission yet: building a world in which our children will flourish.

CONTACT

Get in Touch

For speaking engagements, media inquiries, collaborations, or to learn more about ongoing projects.

Reason for reaching out Optional

CONNECT

Whether you're a conference organizer, journalist, educator, or fellow advocate for ethical innovation, I'd love to hear from you.

© 2026 Erika Cheung. All rights reserved.