Porn stars, playboys, private jets

Former Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ellen Pao (pictured) is seeking $16m in compensation in her sex discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Source: AP

A SEX discrimination trial against one of Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firms is providing a rare peek into the elite investment companies vying to fund the next Google and Amazon.

Their partnership rosters are stacked with some of the nation's most accomplished graduates- multiple-degree holders from universities such as Harvard and Stanford who are competing aggressively to back the next big technology company. But they are also places where women are grossly under-represented.

All part of the working day — Hugh Hefner's annual Midsummer Night's Dream Party is popular with Silicon Valley executives Source: Getty Images

Ellen Pao's lawsuit goes further, describing Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as an old-boys club where women allegedly were excluded from parties at former Vice President Al Gore's house, asked to take notes at a meeting like secretaries and subjected to harassment and boorish behaviour by their male colleagues such as a conversation about porn stars and a trip to the Playboy Mansion aboard a private jet.

Anecdotes about trips to the Playboy Mansion aboard private jets are common in the halls of Kleiner Perkins, apparently Source: Getty Images

The case has put a spotlight on the gender inequities in the technology sector at a time when it is booming and minting new millionaires, but generating resentment from people who feel left out and victimised by its success, — which they blame for higher rents and gentrification. The trial has also brought some of the nation's most accomplished venture capitalists into the courtroom, where they have faced tough questions about sexual harassment and the behaviour of men in the workplace.

Ellen Pao is currently the interim CEO of social media giant Reddit Source: AP

Ms Pao, who has an MBA and law degree from Harvard, has mostly sat quietly and declined media questions during breaks in the proceedings. She could begin testifying as early as today.

But the jury has heard hours of testimony from her former colleagues, including one of her mentors at the firm, billionaire investor John Doerr, who was placed in the awkward position of defending his company while acknowledging that the dearth of females in the venture capital industry is "pathetic."

A study released last year by Babson College in Massachusetts found that women filled just 6 per cent of the partner-level positions at 139 venture capital firms in 2013, down from 10 per cent in 1999.

Mr Doerr said 20 per cent of partners at Kleiner Perkins are women, and he has worked hard to recruit more women. He has disputed Ms Pao's contention that she was passed over for promotions because she was a woman and then fired in 2012 after she complained.

Like the Kleiner Perkins legal team, he says Ms Pao, 45, didn't get along with her colleagues — a requirement for the junior partner position she moved into in 2010 after serving as his chief of staff.

Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers executive John Doerr with Ellen Pao in a 2006 photograph. Source: AP

In a sign of the competitiveness of the industry, Mr Doerr said of the 24 junior partners the firm has taken on during his tenure, only five were promoted. The rest, like Ms Pao, were asked to move on.

Mr Doerr testified he was a loyal supporter of Pao's and tried to help her succeed at Kleiner Perkins. As a member of the Kleiner Perkins management team, he said he fought for Pao to stay with the company and objected when other partners wanted to let her go in 2011.

Ms Pao is seeking $16 million in damages. The firm is seeking to limit any possible damages by arguing that Ms Pao is well-compensated in her current position as interim CEO of the popular social media company Reddit.

Marc Andreessen offers his thoughts on what needs to be done to make the technology industry more inclusive of women at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, Calif.

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