Erika Cheung

Erika Cheung is a respected ethics advocate and keynote speaker known for her role as a key whistleblower in the Theranos scandal. She is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Ethics in Entrepreneurship, a non-profit dedicated to embedding ethical thinking and systems into startups and innovation ecosystems. Through her work, she helps founders, investors, and workers recognise ethical challenges before they escalate. Her decision to report Theranos’ misconduct to regulators not only protected thousands of patients but also sparked a global conversation on ethics in technology and science.

Erika’s story begins in California, where she was largely homeschooled before entering community college at just fourteen. She went on to earn dual degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology and Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, one of the world’s leading research institutions. After graduating, she joined the health technology company Theranos as a laboratory associate. It was there, early in her career, that she discovered the company’s testing devices were unreliable and could endanger patients. When internal attempts to raise her concerns were dismissed, Erika took the courageous step of reporting the issue to health regulators. That decision would change the course of her life and ultimately help expose one of Silicon Valley’s most notorious frauds.

Following Theranos, Erika redirected her skills towards building responsible and ethical innovation systems. She moved to Hong Kong and joined Betatron Venture Group, a leading technology accelerator, first as an Entrepreneur in Residence, later as Programme Manager, and finally as Programme Director. Her work there focused on helping early-stage technology startups grow across Asia and strengthen their governance structures. In 2019, she co-founded Ethics in Entrepreneurship, which now operates globally to develop tools and training for founders and investors. Erika also advises several venture capital firms, family offices, and government investment programmes in the healthcare and biotechnology sectors. Her leadership in these areas earned her invitations to speak at major institutions and conferences, including the Olafson Ethics Symposium in 2024.

Audiences hire Erika because she brings lived experience and rare integrity to discussions on ethics, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Her keynote talks explore whistleblowing, speaking truth to power, ethical decision-making, fraud prevention, and responsible investment. These topics are vital as industries grapple with the moral implications of rapid technological progress. Erika challenges leaders to embed ethics at the core of their organisations, showing that integrity and innovation can grow together.