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Gen. James Mattis Has Ties to Theranos
| Wall Street Journal | - |
Retired
Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee
for secretary of defense, has a four-year-long connection with Theranos
Inc., the embattled blood-testing startup.
Gen. James Mattis Has Ties to Theranos
After retiring, Gen. Mattis took seat on board
ENLARGE
Marine Gen. James
Mattis, shown in March 2013, is also on the board of directors for
General Dynamics Corp., the defense contractor that builds
nuclear-powered submarines, armored vehicles and business jets.
Photo:
Associated Press
Gen. Mattis joined Theranos’s board in July 2013, a couple of months after his retirement. As of Thursday night, Theranos’s website listed Gen. Mattis as a company director. Theranos referred questions about Gen. Mattis’s directorship to him.
His ties to the company stretch back to his days overseeing the military’s operations in the Middle East and central Asia.
In 2012, Gen. Mattis, then leading the military’s Central Command, pressed for the U.S. Army to procure Theranos lab equipment and deploy it in the battlefield, according to senior military officials involved in Army medical research. The officials said officers and civilian personnel involved in a review of the technology were told Gen. Mattis sought the procurement.
THE TRUMP TRANSITION
Theranos and a representative for Gen. Mattis didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Theranos is the subject of criminal and civil investigations by the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are trying to determine if the company misled investors and regulators about its technology and operations. Theranos has said it is cooperating.
Gen. Mattis also is on the board of directors of General Dynamics Corp., the defense contractor and aerospace firm that builds nuclear-powered submarines, armored vehicles and business jets.
Write to Christopher Weaver at christopher.weaver@wsj.com
