Posted on 11/12/2007 10:40:51 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a career marked by second acts, Al Gore, the former vice president of the United States and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is becoming a partner at Silicon Valley's most storied venture capital firm.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said on Monday that Gore, a campaigner for action to slow global climate change, will join the Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm as a partner focused on alternative energy investments.
The venture firm, which since 1972 has backed seminal computer start-ups ranging from Sun Microsystems to Compaq Computer to Amazon.com to Google Inc, has emerged in recent years as a leading funder of alternative energy companies.
Gore, 59, is joining the Kleiner board as part of a collaboration between his Generation Investment Management fund and Kleiner Perkins to fund so-called "green" business, technology and policies that address global climate change.
Other active or affiliated partners at Kleiner Perkins include legendary computer company backer John Doerr, alternative energy financier Vinod Khosla and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Kleiner Perkins plans to co-locate their European operations at Generation's offices in London. In addition, Doerr, Silicon Valley's best-known venture capitalist and long a major backer of Gore's political and policy efforts, will join Generation's advisory board, the two organizations said.
Kleiner has historically focused on making investments in and around Silicon Valley. However, it recently expanded operations in China. And as it moves into energy investments, it has taken on a more global profile in its operations.
Generation and Kleiner will remain focused on separate activities, with Kleiner Perkins investing in start-ups and Generation continuing its previous focus on investing in publicly traded companies focused on alternative energy or agriculture.
Gore said that as part of the agreement between the two firms, 100 percent of his salary as a partner at Kleiner Perkins will be donated directly to the Alliance for Climate Protection -- the nonpartisan foundation he chairs.
As a member of the U.S. Congress for 25 years, Gore popularized the term "information superhighway" and was instrumental in providing funds for what later became the Internet. In the 1990s, his critics pilloried him for implying that he deserved credit as "the father of the Internet."
Since leaving government, Gore has played an active role in advising top Silicon Valley companies. He sits on the board of computer and phone maker Apple Inc and is a senior adviser to Internet services leader Google Inc.
Well, (the sainted) Princess Di leaps to mind.
John Doerr was a classmate of mine at HBS and he is a good and decent person - he is clearly letting his emotions control his intellect - OR he is saying let’s ride the wave and collect off this mindless and indefensible fool (Gore) to be a rainmaker. This may be a sad conclusion to an other wise brilliant career.
I thought he'd use Teddy's law firm.
Winer, Diner, Dicker, and Dunker
Records show that Al and Tipper Gore paid a monthly gas-and-electric bill of $2,400 for their 20-room mansion and related outbuildings. That includes $500 a month for their poolhouse. Gore claimed that he bought “carbon offsets” to make up for his $30K annual energy tab. Where did he buy offsets? From Generation Investment Management (GIM), a firm which lists Gore as Chairman.
Wanton profiteering appears to be at the very heart of “carbon offsets.” Put simply, a wide range of respected scientists, environmentalists, researchers, agriculturalists, and activists believe that carbon offsets are a “scam”, “fantasy”, “fiction”, “nonsense”, “fraudulent” and worse. And they’ve been saying so since 2000, though to read the newspaper you wouldn’t know it.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2007/03/inconvenient-offset-quick-recap-records.html
alot more stuff there!!
Interesting.
fyi
I cannot remember any person who has received so much in return for so little contribution and with so little intelligence. Period.
It seems immoral and unnatural doesn’t it.
Thanks for the warning. Now, I’ll know some companies that I’ll never invest in. Gore should have gone with Microsoft years ago...no creativity, lots of questionable business practices, and a newest product (Vista) with about as much believability as global warming.
It’s always heartwarming to watch the tribunes of the people from the workingman’s party grab every bit of capitalist cash they can after they leave office. And get hailed as great humanitarians by their compliant media whores while doing it.
Since the day this green house stuff surfaced, I knew it was all about the money. People think Al-Gore-Rhythm is stupid, but he could be tremendously clever. In developing a new industry the key phrase is, “Let the early bird get the worms.” I personnaly hope he chokes on those worms. Thank God there are more and more experts stepping forward that are claiming him “NUTS.”
For a drop-out of both divinity school and law school this snake-oil saleman has done alright for himself and his family. I wouldn’t even begrudge him the money but he insists in trying to tell me how to live my life.
In written comments to Lloyd's task force, Silicon Valley venture capitalists John Doerr, Ray Lane and Bill Joy of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers said they ``enthusiastically'' support a cap-and-trade program because it could lead to new markets for technology that helps reduce energy use.``Let free [sic] markets do what they do best: Create incentives for innovation and reward efficient companies with a new revenue stream,'' the trio wrote in an Oct. 24 letter.
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=49154
Have you forget that he invented the Internet???
???Like the fluorescent light bulbs DC is going to mandate for every light in every house???
Wouldn't you just love to be able to buy into something that every American will be forced to buy, thanks your commie cronies in DC?
Woohoo! Tulipmania, on steroids.
What a bunch of crooks!
I wonder if there is any way to find out if there’s any ties here to the soon to be mandated srew shaped bulbs that they’re srewing us with -
I agree. Gore will give them an edge for both attracting and promoting deals.
There are 99 9/10ths percentile-types out of Stanford, HBS, etc., who will never see the inside of a firm like this.
Al Gore, Harvard “Gentleman’s C” and Vandy Divinity Drop-out, gets the deal gig. VC needs diversity, I suppose.
The donation does not include stock options. Typically, a tiny fraction of a venture capitalist's compensation is salary; the vast majority of wealth comes from sale of stock options when the companies the firm invests in are sold to the public.
''It's one of the benefits of not being in the public sector anymore,'' Gore said with a laugh. He wouldn't say how much Kleiner Perkins was paying him.
Score one for the NY Times
Making money.
.
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