Anne Wojcicki: the 'daring' 23andMe CEO who reached too far

Anne Wojcicki dreamed of a revolution in personal genomics and medicine. She set up 23andMe to realise her vision in 2006. The firm’s collapse into bankruptcy provides a cautionary tale, says Jane Lewis

 Anne Wojcicki attends the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party
(Image credit: Cindy Ord/VF24/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

To some, Anne Wojcicki is an “eternal optimist”, says the Financial Times – a medical industry pioneer who “won’t give up on her dream of using DNA kits to discover new drugs”. But, following the descent of the once high-flying 23andMe into bankruptcy protection, plenty of others aren’t quite so charitable. After repeated attempts to take the ailing genetics-testing firm she co-founded private, Wojcicki has now resigned as CEO to pursue an “independent” bid, amid plenty of sniping.

The rancour of shareholders is understandable. In 2008, Wojcicki used “her charm and Silicon Valley connections” to orchestrate a series of celebrity-studded “spit parties” publicising her new DNA-testing start-up, says the FT. The stars “dutifully filled 23andMe’s test tubes with their saliva”. Wojcicki’s “relentless optimism and charisma” helped “wave aside customer privacy fears and regulatory scrutiny”.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.