Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Larry Busacca/Getty Theranos is making a huge change to its leadership.

In 2017, the company said, the board of counselors will be retired. The board of counselors consisted mostly of former directors with strong government connections but little scientific experience, such as Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and it served as an advisory board to the company's founder, Elizabeth Holmes.

James Mattis, a retired Marine general who is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, will stay on the company's board of directors.

Theranos also announced that Riley Bechtel, who sat on the board of directors, would also be departing immediately, citing health issues. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bechtel had invested in Theranos, which hadn't been publicly disclosed.

When the blood-testing company was first facing major criticism over its technology in October 2015, one of the problems cited was that its board of directors included few professionals with science credentials. To counter that, Theranos moved many of those members onto a board of counselors and later made a scientific and medical advisory board.

The members of the board of counselors are among some of the highest-profile names supporting Theranos and Holmes, who is the company's CEO.

Among those who will no longer be with the company:

Henry A. Kissinger — former US secretary of state

— former US secretary of state William H. Frist — heart and lung transplant surgeon and former US senator

— heart and lung transplant surgeon and former US senator Sam Nunn — former US senator who served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

— former US senator who served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations William J. Perry — former US secretary of defense

— former US secretary of defense George P. Shultz — former US secretary of state

— former US secretary of state Gary Roughead — retired US Navy admiral

Here's Theranos' current board of directors, including Daniel Warmenhoven, who will be replacing Bechtel.