![]() ![]() Pao, 45, who wears thick-rimmed glasses and boasts three Ivy League degrees, is widely described as quiet and even introverted.īut discrimination lawsuits are familiar territory for Pao. Pao’s relentlessness in this case has surprised many who know her. Employment law attorneys say at least 90 percent of these cases never make it to trial because they can be damaging to the employer’s reputation, invasive for the employee and expensive. Most experts expected Pao and Kleiner to settle their dispute in private. In the filing, Kleiner said Pao “had conflicts with most of her colleagues, men and women” and “failed to develop the expertise needed for success in the investing partner role.” Yet she made more than her male colleagues - $300,000 to $380,000 annually.Īs many as 13 Kleiner executives, including Pao’s former boss, John Doerr, will be called as witnesses to rebut Pao’s claims. The firm has also disparaged Pao’s work and said she was fired in 2012 for underperformance. Pao’s lawsuit says she experienced harassment from other male colleagues, and after reporting the harassment to management, she was excluded from meetings and investment opportunities, told to move to the firm’s China office and skipped over for partner promotions.īut Kleiner claims Pao told Nazre she loved him and sent him angry texts after their affair ended, according to a court filing. ![]() ![]() Pao’s lawsuit alleges in 2006, a year after she was hired at Kleiner, her colleague and then junior partner Ajit Nazre made “inappropriate sexual approaches.” She succumbed on “two or three occasions,” but when she broke it off, he retaliated, according to the suit. That such a relatively progressive firm with worldwide prestige - it has backed such successful companies as Google, Amazon and Genentech - would become the centerpiece of the first high-profile discrimination lawsuit against a venture firm shocked much of the tech community, say experts. Jury selection began Thursday, with opening arguments next week.Ĭompared to other firms, Kleiner boasts a high number of women in its ranks –11 partners, or 20 percent of the firm. While tech companies such as Google and Facebook face mounting pressure to diversify their workforce, the Pao case is the most glaring example that VCs, too, must be part of the solution to finding a better gender balance in tech, say experts. The lack of women participating, especially at higher levels, is really distasteful.” “They have a really dispiriting history around gender equity. “I think it’s a wake-up call to the venture capital community,” said Deborah Rhode, a Stanford University law professor and expert in legal ethics. At a time when tension over the lack of women in all areas of technology has hit a boiling point - just last month a former Stanford student filed a salacious lawsuit against a venture capitalist alleging rape - the Pao suit has put the heat squarely on venture capital. The Pao case, which began in 2012 with her lawsuit accusing Kleiner of gender discrimination and retaliating by stymying her career when she reported sexual harassment by colleagues, and ultimately firing her, has rocked the venture capital world, according to legal experts and advocates for women in technology. If she loses, Kleiner - which has denied all allegations - will have triumphed over one of its most determined opponents, a victory that will add credence to claims the firm has made repeatedly that it is among the most women-friendly venture businesses.īut for the larger VC community, it may not matter who wins. If Pao wins her suit, she walks away with up to $16 million and a victory that will likely accelerate reform in the largely closed, male-dominated venture industry. ![]() SAN FRANCISCO - She seemed an unlikely challenger to Silicon Valley’s elite - a lithe, shy Harvard graduate, alleging sex discrimination at one of the world’s most prestigious venture capital firms.īut Ellen Pao, former venture capitalist turned tech CEO, has taken her former employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, all the way to the state courthouse, where this week trial proceedings began in the high-profile case that has planted the schmoozy and insular venture-capital community smack dab in an unflattering spotlight. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |