This is just sad. When Reagan defaulted to "I don't recall" as his stock answer, he was like in his 70s and getting a bit senile.
This is either serious incompetence or lying. She doesn't get the polite out of "I'm just getting old. Oops."
Plus, there was another detail revealed that Holmes had been less forthcoming about: She admitted that she and Balwani had been living together and had engaged in a romantic relationship. It was something she admitted under oath but had kept from investors.
I've said publicly on HN and on my personal blog(s) that I think things got so crazy out of hand with Theranos precisely because she was a charming, pretty young woman. I've said privately to my sons that if I were an investigative reporter, I would be looking for evidence that she slept her way into power. She long claimed to be celibate because she was so devoted to her work. What better way to try to shut down accusations of sex for favors than to claim she's not sexually active at all?
I'm still waiting to learn that she actually slept with a number of her investors and board members. Some of the men involved with her company were notorious ladies men. In my experience, most men like that won't be deterred by the detail that they are old enough to be my father or grandfather.
This is one reason I'm relatively patient with the sexism that I feel closes so many doors for me. I'm well aware that "business meetings" between a man and a woman can be a polite cover story for an illicit relationship. I'm also well aware that if it is a polite cover story, it's probably not a case of "It's actually a productive business relationship with a bonus of sex on the side." It's probably a case of "No, the only thing of value she has to offer is sex and the man in question is willing to lie and pretend she's a real business person to get that, but would have ditched her incompetent sorry ass long ago as a business partner if business for profit was his actual motive."
I still am not sure how to solve this for myself. Things are very slowly getting better for me. But I think there are inherent challenges in trying to make sure it's really business if you are a woman and this will likely always be true, though I hope we can develop some best practices for opening doors for women who are serious and deserve a shot at earning their way on merit in spite of being born with the wrong bits between their legs.