Elizabeth Holmes’ fiance is William Evans. The two have been engaged since at least February, when Vanity Fair first reported the news. DailyMail soon followed up with more information on Holmes’ mysterious engagement.
Prior to her relationship with Evans, Holmes was in a secret relationship with the COO of her company: “Sunny” Balwani, who now awaits trial for similar charges to Holmes.
As Holmes awaits trial for her charges in relation to her work as the founder and CEO of the now-defunct Theranos, here’s what you need to know about her new relationship with William Evans:
1. News of Holmes’ Engagement Was First Announced by Vanity Fair in February
News of Holmes’ new and serious relationship was first reported by Vanity Fair in February, when the publication announced Holmes was in a relationship:
Holmes is currently living in San Francisco in a luxury apartment. She’s engaged to a younger hospitality heir, who also works in tech. She wears his M.I.T. signet ring on a necklace and the couple regularly post stories on Instagram professing their love for each other. She reliably looks “chirpy” and “chipper.” She’s also abandoned the black-turtleneck look and now dresses in athleisure, the regrettable attire of our age.
Shortly after, DailyMail reported the identity of Holmes’ mysterious fiance: William “Billy” Evans, a hotel heir who graduated from MIT in 2015 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Science and Economics.
2. Evans Is a Hotel Heir for the Evans Hotel Group
Per DailyMail, Evans is the heir of the hotel company the Evans Hotel Group, which his grandparents founded in 1953. He has worked at startups in the past, though his grandmother, Anne, is the current chairman emeritus of the company and many of his family members work for the hotel as well.
According to a profile of Bill Evans, William Evans’ father, for Voice of San Diego, Bill is a “prolific contributor to political campaigns” for Democrats and Republicans alike; what’s more, the publication reports that the Evans Hotel Group grosses $100 million annually.
The Evans Hotel Group is largely based in San Diego in the La Jolla, Mission Bay, and Torrey Pines areas.
3. Per Evans’ LinkedIn Profile, He Was a Manager of Special Projects at Luminar Technologies Until January
According to Evans’ LinkedIn, he was a Manager of Special Projects for Luminar Technologies until January 2019. Prior to this role, which he’d been in since February 2017, Evans worked as a Strategy and Analytics Leadership Program Analyst at LinkedIn for a year and eight months.
Via his LinkedIn, Evans has held a number of positions and internships in the past, from working as a Summer Associate at the Boston Consulting Group, to being a Student Brand Manager for Red Bull. He attended Francis Parker School from 1996-2010, and went to MIT as an undergrad. He also studied abroad for a year in Shanghai.
As for Holmes, she is not currently working, and likely will not hold a role similar to her position at Theranos for several decades, if ever. As part of her settlement with the SEC, she has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and to not serve as a director or officer at any publicly traded company for the next decade. However, she still awaits trial for her wire fraud charges, to which she has pleaded not guilty.
4. Prior to Her Relationship With Evans, Holmes Dated Sunny Balwani, the COO of Theranos
Prior to her relationship with Evans, Holmes was in a controversial relationship with Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the COO of Theranos. When Balwani and Holmes first met, she was 18 years old and he was in his thirties and married. Two years later, he and his wife were no longer together.
According to Balwani’s divorce proceedings, Balwani and Holmes met when she was a high school student and he was an MBA candidate at Berkley, and they both went on a Beijing trip coordinated by Stanford. At the time, Holmes was 18 and Balwani was 37. However, their romantic relationship did not begin, according to their reports, until 2004, after Holmes dropped out of Stanford to focus on Theranos. According to Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou, Theranos and Balwani were living together by 2005.
Holmes also has a pet. Per her profile in Vanity Fair, Holmes bought her Siberian Husky, Balto, as a means to deploy a physical metaphor to investors about her own physical and mental resilience to adversity. Per the publication, she claims that Balto is a wolf.
5. A Trial Date Has Not Yet Been Set for Holmes
A trial has not yet been set for Holmes. If she is convicted of the charges of wire fraud that she’s been charged with by the government, she could face a jail time of up to 20 years. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges, as has Balwani.
In recently-obtained footage of a 2017 deposition of Holmes, via ABC, Holmes revealed that Balwani had “loaned” her “about 20 million” in 2009.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that William Evans was still employed as Manager of Special Projects at Luminar Technologies. According to his LinkedIn profile, Evans left the company in January 2019.