May 21,1997
John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
Internet Opportunities, Political Action, Education Reform, and All That

Speaker: John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers

Title: Internet Opportunities, Political Action, Education Reform, and All That

Abstract:

As Silicon Valley industry matures, factors other than raw technology must be addressed to assure ongoing business success. The high-tech community must play a more active role in shaping governmental policy and legislation to reflect Valley interests, and in changing the educational system in order to produce job candidates better qualified for the employment opportunities of tomorrow.

In this presentation one of Silicon Valley's best respected and most effective Venture Capitalists will discuss the current business climate for new Internet-related start-ups, the importance of political activism, current efforts to reform the nature of education - and how these disparate elements are in fact interrelated.

Bio:

Since 1980 John Doerr has worked as a venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he sponsored KPCB's investments in such companies as Compaq, Cypress, Intuit, Macromedia, Netscape, Lotus, Millenium, S3, Sun, and Symantec. All told KPCB has invested over 1.3B in 250 technology ventures in the U.S., resulting in the creation of more than 150,000 jobs and sales exceeding 50B.

During the 1996 California election campaign Doerr spearheaded the highly successful movement to defeat Proposition 211, and is now actively involved in pushing the cause of education reform.

Before joining KPCB Doerr spent six years at Intel Corp. in a variety of engineering, marketing, and management positions. He holds BS/EE and MS/EE degrees from Rice University and an MBA from Harvard. Current interests include the Internet, education, and biotechnology genomics.

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