Getty Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of blood testing and life sciences company Theranos, leaves the courthouse with her husband Billy Evans after the first day of her fraud trial in San Jose, California on September 8, 2021.
William “Billy” Evans is a hospitality heir and the husband of Elizabeth Holmes, who is best known as the founder of the now-defunct medical start-up company called Theranos. The couple got married in 2019 and have a child together.
Holmes claimed to have invented technology that would have made it easier to test a person’s blood for illnesses, as PBS reported, and became the “world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.” However, Theranos folded under scrutiny about whether the technology actually worked. Holmes was charged with multiple counts of fraud and faces decades in prison if convicted, per the New York Times.
Here’s what you need to know about Holmes’ husband:
1. Evans Is the Heir to a Multimillion-Dollar Hotel Company
For everyone asking about Holmes’s social media. It’s private. But here are a few screenshots of her and her fiancé we found online. (I personally find it crazy that she’s being charged with 11 felony counts, thousands of people’s lives were harmed, and she’s as happy as can be.)
Billy Evans’ grandparents, William and Anne Evans, launched Evans Hotels in 1953, according to the company’s website. The founders were San Diego natives and the company operates at least three properties in the area, according to a list of resorts on the site.
Anne Evans and her adult children, Bill Evans and Grace Evans Cherashore, oversee the company, as noted in the “our story” section of the website. Evans Hotels’ estimated annual revenue is more than $180 million, according to data platform Growjo.
Billy Evans’ expected inheritance was discussed after the news of his marriage to Holmes was made public. Vanity Fair correspondent Nick Bilton commented on the “Inside the Hive” podcast in June 2019 that Evans “is a trust fund baby and has a lot of money, and he’s probably helping out with the legal bills because Elizabeth’s family doesn’t have money.” The outlet Sandiegoville cited Bilton’s quote in September 2021, as Holmes’ trial began.
2. Evans Studied Economics at MIT & Worked for a Tech Company Focused on Autonomous Vehicles
GettyTheranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her husband Billy Evans on November 22, 2021.
Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from MIT in 2015, according to his LinkedIn account. He also studied abroad at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
After college, Evans returned to the west coast to work for LinkedIn. He spent nearly two years with the company as a program analyst.
In February 2017, Evans became the manager of special projects for Luminar Technologies. He wrote on LinkedIn that the company is “producing advanced sensor technologies for the autonomous vehicle industry.” Evans left in January 2019 and had not listed another job on his profile as of this writing.
3. Evans’ Family Questioned Whether Holmes Had ‘Brainwashed’ Him: Report
GettyTheranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes along with her mother Noel Holmes (R) and partner Billy Evans arrive for her trial on November 22, 2021 in San Jose, California.
Evans and Holmes have been together since 2017. According to the New York Post, they met at a party in the San Francisco Bay area that summer.
The Post spoke with an unnamed source who identified themselves as Evans’ former coworker at Luminar Technologies. The source claimed Evans’ family members were skeptical of the relationship and worried that Holmes had “brainwashed” him.
The source told the Post that family members warned Evans, “This could be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make,” and “The negativity around her could blow back on you.”
However, Evans’ father does not appear to share that opinion. Holmes’ father-in-law, Bill Evans, has been in the courtroom during her trial, according to NPR. He told reporters that he didn’t like how the media had been covering Holmes and told NPR, “No journalist has ever told the real story about her.”
Holmes and Evans got engaged in early 2019 and Evans gave her his MIT signet ring. On the choice of engagement ring, the Post’s source commented, “He could snap his fingers and have a triple-A diamond engagement ring instantly if he wanted to. But if you give her some extravagant ring, it could end up owned by the feds if she has to give up her material possessions.”
4. Holmes & Evans Welcomed a Baby Boy in July 2021
Holmes and Evans tied the knot in what Vanity Fair described as a “secret wedding.” The ceremony took place in June 2019, according to the Sun.
The couple is now parents to a baby boy. ABC News, citing birth records, reported the baby was born on July 10, 2021, in Redwood City, California. They named their son William Holmes Evans.
Holmes’ criminal trial was delayed multiple times, first due to the pandemic and then because of her pregnancy. ABC News reports there is a quiet room in the courthouse that Holmes uses to care for her son during breaks.
5. Holmes & Evans Lived at Green Gables, Which Is One of the Most Expensive Estates in the Country: Report
Evans and Holmes lived in one of the wealthiest areas in Silicon Valley as of September 2021. CNBC reported the couple lived in a home on the Green Gables Estate in Woodside, California.
Woodside is located in San Mateo County on the San Francisco peninsula. According to Zillow, the average value for a home in Woodside is approximately $4.4 million.
CNBC reported the network had confirmed the couple was staying at Green Gables after Evans received a traffic citation in San Mateo County. Court records revealed an address.
The Estate at Gree Gables is a 74-acre property with a mansion and ” six other dwellings, each nestled in its own private setting,” according to the listing on Christie’s International Real Estate. As of this writing, the property was listed for sale at $135 million. The property has been on the market since at least February 2021, Bloomberg reported.
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