A Firsthand Account of Whistleblowing and Legal Consequences
Corporate scandals often focus on executives and failed oversight — but far less attention is given to the individuals who risk their careers, finances, and relationships to expose misconduct from within.
The collapse of Theranos remains one of the most significant corporate fraud cases of the modern era. At the centre of that story was Tyler Shultz, a young research engineer who discovered serious internal problems, raised concerns, and ultimately became a key source in exposing the fraud.
In this presentation, Tyler Shultz shares his firsthand account of working inside Theranos, confronting internal deception, and navigating the extraordinary retaliation that followed. Joining him is veteran whistleblower attorney Mary Inman, who provides legal context and analysis throughout the program — explaining the protections, risks, enforcement mechanisms, and strategic considerations that apply when individuals report corporate wrongdoing.
This session blends lived experience with legal insight. Participants will gain a practical understanding of how whistleblower laws function in real life, how retaliation unfolds, and how governance failures allow misconduct to persist
Key Learning Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Whistleblower, Professional Speaker | Cultivating Courage
Theranos promised to revolutionize the healthcare industry, raised nearly $1B in funding, attained a $9B valuation, and assembled a high-powered board of directors of former secretaries of state, secretaries of defense, 4-star generals, and senators. Tyler was 22 years old, fresh out of college, and eager to join a company that was being touted as "the Apple of healthcare." He quickly realized, however, that behind the facade of a charismatic founder, powerful board, high-profile investors, and magazine cover stories, Theranos was built on lies. Tyler raised concerns to colleagues, managers, a VP, the President and COO, the CEO, and a Board Member before reaching out to government regulators and the Wall Street Journal to expose one of the biggest corporate frauds since Enron. After Theranos, Tyler has continued to pursue the vision of delivering high quality, actionable diagnostic solutions. He co-founded two startups in the diagnostics field: one is a deep-tech lab-on-a-chip venture spun out of the Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology at Stanford, and the other is a direct-to-consumer company utilizing dried blood spot testing. Tyler now speaks to audiences all over the world on the importance of implementing ethics and compliance into companies, and how they can be used as competitive advantages.
Partner at Whistleblower Partners LLP
Mary Inman is a partner at Whistleblower Partners. She has 30 years of experience representing whistleblowers in the U.S. under the False Claims Act, as well as the SEC, CFTC, IRS, FinCEN, and NHTSA/DOT whistleblower programs. After three years working in London, Mary represents an increasing number of international whistleblowers seeking to expose misconduct overseas with a nexus to the U.S. She also regularly helps whistleblowers bring claims to foreign regulators, including the Ontario Securities Commission, Canada Revenue Agency, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and Korea’s National Tax Service. Starting with a $32.7 million settlement against Florida Medicare Advantage Organization Freedom Health and its COO on behalf of her whistleblower client, the late Dr. Darren Sewell, M.D., Mary has gone on to represent whistleblowers Benjamin Poehling (UnitedHealth Group), Teresa Ross (Independent Health and Group Health Cooperative), and Dr. James Taylor (Kaiser), whose cases involve allegations that the Medicare Advantage Organizations submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare program based on artificially inflated member risk scores. Mary graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1994, where she was an Articles Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. After law school, Mary clerked for the Honorable D. Brock Hornby, U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, and the late Honorable Norman H. Stahl of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before law school, Mary put her dramatic tendencies to good use as a performer at the Maine State Music Theater. Outside work, Mary enjoys serving as gaffer, stagehand, and editor for her husband’s YouTube channel, Dave Fogler at the Cinodrome, and, in summer, can be heard imitating loon calls on a lake in northern Maine.
