Pao! Kaboom!

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is a VC firm, a big one with a number of high profile guys (including John Doerr, the firm’s best-known partner.) They see themselves as more than innovators, they see themselves as leaders. When a former partner, Ellen Pao, sued them alleging gender discrimination they did not settle; according to many, they fought because they were offended.
There has been a lot of debate over gender bias in the industry. According to research from Babson College, the percentage of female venture capitalists is now 6 percent, down from 10 percent at the peak of the dot-com boom in 1999. The tech industry is male dominated and engineering is top-heavy with men.
Vignettes emerged in court. Mr. Doerr’s told an investigator that Ms. Pao had a “female chip on her shoulder.” Chi-Hua Chien, a partner, said women should not be invited to a dinner with former Vice President Al Gore because they “kill the buzz.” A senior partner at the time, Ray Lane, joked to a junior partner that she should be “flattered” that a colleague showed up at her hotel room door wearing only a bathrobe.

Ms. Pao is married to Alphonse Fletcher Jr., a Wall Street financier whose hedge fund is bankrupt. Pension funds are suing to recover their money amid accusations of fraud. Kleiner tried to insert Mr. Fletcher into the case, which would have raised questions about Ms. Pao’s motives in bringing suit, but the judge, Harold Kahn, refused to allow it.

Pao lost her case last week.