That’s the lesson here, no need to raise any totally irrelevant questions about her husband’s famous discrimination lawsuits against Kidder Peabody and The Dakota. At stake is any hope that Silicon Valley can claim to be a progressive place. What is really under examination in this trial is the question of why there are so few women in leadership positions in the valley. But that is pocket change in Silicon Valley. Pao might have earned at Kleiner, plus millions more in punitive damages.

Kleiner says she failed to improve despite all that coaching and was terminated.Īt risk is the millions that Ms. Pao contends she was harassed and then discriminated against. Exactly why is the subject of a lawsuit she filed against Kleiner and which is now being heard in civil court here. She would be paid millions and be at the red-hot center of the crucible of the tech economy.

Her annual evaluations were filled with suggestions about how she could improve and perhaps even advance to the inner circle of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the blue-chip firm where she was a junior partner. Be confident and critical - but not cocky or negative.Įllen Pao got a lot of advice about how to succeed in the clubby, hypercompetitive, overwhelmingly male world of venture capital. Light up the room - but don’t overshadow others. SAN FRANCISCO - Speak up - but don’t talk too much. Kleiner Perkins, World of Venture Capital Is Under Microscope Pao’s husband is never mentioned in the article. If Tom Wolfe put an adventurer as outrageous as Buddy Fletcher in one of his novels, critics would dismiss it as over the top. Pao appears to be an extremely boring person, but her husband - the notoriously litigious gay black Wall Street Master of the Universe turned bankruptee Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher - is not boring. For example, below is the New York Times’ latest long article about Ellen Pao’s sex discrimination case against a famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm. One of those hard to notice dog-that-didn’t-bark things is how often prestige press coverage is intentionally made more boring than the story actually is.

Buddy fletcher hedge fund