Partner confirms male-only dinner at Kleiner Perkins
Ellen Pao, right, a former venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, leaves the San Francisco Civic Center Courthouse with attorney Therese Lawless in San Francisco on Tuesday.(Photo: Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY)SAN FRANCISCO — The Ellen Pao case began its second day in court Wednesday with one of her former co-workers confirming several all-male events organized for partners at the firm.Pao is a former partner at Silicon Valley's premier venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. She is suing the firm for $16 million in a gender-discrimination suit.She is now the interim CEO of Reddit, a popular microblogging site.The case is generating significant buzz in Silicon Valley over the lack of women, African Americans and Hispanics at tech firms.Chi-hua Chien, a junior and then senior partner and now an adviser at the firm, was the first witness called to testify.Chien confirmed that in 2011 he organized an all-male dinner for Kleiner Perkins partners and companies the firm had worked with at the San Francisco condo of Al Gore, a partner at the firm.This dinner was one of the instances cited in Pao's complaint and given as an example of the culture of the firm.In it, Pao quoted Chien as saying in a meeting that having women present at the dinner would "kill the buzz."Kleiner Perkins had denied in court papers that the meeting was specifically organized to exclude women.Chien also confirmed that he had organized a ski trip to Vail, Colo., for a group of the firm's partners and staff at companies they worked with.The group rented three condos and the issue of how rooms would be allocated to men and women came up as it was deemed inappropriate for women to be asked to share rooms with men.Chien and colleagues discussed inviting Jennifer Hyman and, later, Jennifer Fleiss, co-founders of RentTheRunway.com, a Kleiner-funded firm.Instead, Chien said in an e-mail, "Why don't we punt on her and find two guys who are awesome? We can add four to eight women next year."Therese Lawless, Pao's lawyer, confirmed that there was no ski trip the subsequent year.Lawless spent close to an hour quizzing Chien about his performance at the company.Chien confirmed that he had worked three or four times with Bill Campbell in a group setting with other partners. Cambell has has coached many high-level executives in Silicon Valley.That's important because in opening remarks on Tuesday, Kleiner Perkins lawyer Lynne Hermle noted the firm had given Pao the chance to work with Campbell. The intimation was that she needed remedial training on how to deal with others.Lawless was making the point that multiple staffers at Kleiner Perkins had had similar training.Lawless also noted Chien received multiple somewhat negative reviews during his time at the firm. He was variously described as "brash and not open to other people's views," "too direct and harsh," "can come across as too arrogant" and "can be a little blunt or overbearing."This was in contrast to Tuesday's opening remarks, in which Hermle noted negative reviews of Pao during her tenure at the company, reflecting she was a poor fit for the job.Under cross-examination by Hermle, Chien said that being tough is a crucial trait for a venture capitalist."If a company is not doing well, you might have to fire the CEO. If a company is not doing well, you might have to shut it down."That "can be difficult on people, but a lot of money is at stake," he said.Will ice, snow shut down the South...again?Feb 25, 2015
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