John Doerr, the longtime partner at Silicon Valley venture capital stalwart Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who is perhaps the firm’s most recognizable public face, has spoken out for the first time about the gender discrimination lawsuit filed against the firm earlier this month by partner Ellen Pao (news of which was first broken by TechCrunch last week.)
In a post published on Kleiner’s official website, Doerr wrote that while he is unable to respond fully to the claims because of legal constraints, he could say that an independent investigation by Kleiner Perkins has found the lawsuit’s claims to be “without merit” and expressed confidence that his firm will prevail in the end. He also took time to underline Kleiner’s history of pioneering diversity within the firm, which is indeed notable in a field that studies show is typically dominated by white men.
Here is the post in its entirety:
“The last several days have been a difficult time for me and my partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a firm I’m proud to have been a part of for 32 years. It is not easy to stand by as false allegations are asserted against the firm, especially because legal constraints prevent us from responding fully at this time. But we have been heartened to hear from so many people – including many women – who have reached out to convey their support.
We have taken great care to treat this situation seriously, swiftly, and with integrity. We hired an expert, independent investigator to conduct a thorough inquiry. The investigator’s report concluded that the allegations are without merit and that our firm does not discriminate on the basis of gender.
In the end, facts – not unfounded claims – will determine the outcome of the suit filed against us. We will vigorously defend our reputation and are confident we will prevail.
But until this matter is resolved I hope those judging Kleiner Perkins will remember one thing about us: our pioneering track record in diversity.
We have long believed the best thinking comes from a diverse set of minds and have highly valued diversity in our partnership and ventures. We are proud of our track record. Our firm today is one of the most diverse in gender, age and ethnicity, as is our equally diverse network of great entrepreneurs, including the women who founded or lead companies such as Auxogyn, Coursera, Genomic Health, Lockerz, One King’s Lane, Plum District, Rent the Runway and Veracyte, among others. Most importantly, we’re backing them not because they are women, but because they are the best at what they do.
That is the same reason we have a dozen female partners at our firm – the most of any leading venture capital firm – including women who are leaders across our Digital Growth Fund, our newest venture fund, our Life Sciences Venture Team, our Human Capital Team, and our Marketing and Communications and Finance functions. They are outstanding executives and leaders.
We are fortunate and grateful to have so many supporters who continue to believe in Kleiner Perkins and our values. Thank you all for your unwavering and heartfelt support.
John Doerr”
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a well known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, due in large part to their past success. They were early investors in many significant companies, including Amazon, AOL, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Google, Intuit, Macromedia, Netscape, Segway, and Sun Microsystems. The name of the firm comes from the four founding partners: Eugene Kleiner, Tom Perkins, Frank J. Caufield, and Brook Byers. In March 2008, KPCB announced the iFund, a $100M investment initiative focused on ideas...
John Doerr is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Together with KPCB’s partners, John has backed many of America’s best entrepreneurial leaders, including: Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt: Google [GOOG] Jeff Bezos: Amazon [AMZN] Scott Cook, Bill Campbell: Intuit [INTU] Andy Bechtolsheim, Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, Vinod Khosla: Sun [SUNW] And the founders of Compaq, Cypress, Macromedia and Symantec These ventures have created more than 150,000 new jobs. In 1974 John joined a small chipmaker, Intel,...
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